Actor Ernest Borgnine (January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) and Frank Sinatra were friends.
Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine met when they were both acting in From Here to Eternity (1953). At the time, Sinatra was at a low point in his career and Borgnine was, as he said, “a starving actor in New York resigned to trying to get a job with the post office.” Sinatra won an Oscar for his performance, which was the start of one of the greatest comebacks in entertainment history. For Borgnine it was his big break. Borgnine told the following story to Nancy Sinatra and, in slightly different words, to Larry King.
Ernest Borgnine: “I went to work the first day and as luck would have it, my first scene was with Frank Sinatra and I'm dying inside, because here was the man who sang ‘Nancy’ (I named my daughter because of that song). My idol, my everything. I loved him in everything he ever did. And I said, ‘How can I, a mere nothing, come on here?’…but I knew I had to play this part as the meanest s.o.b. that ever existed, otherwise the part won't play. So I was out there pounding the piano and everything else, and we started this scene. I'm looking around and I see Frank Sinatra dancing with this girl. And I see Montgomery Clift over with somebody else. And over standing on the side were Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster talking to Fred Zinnemann. I was just engulfed with stars. And I'm just shaking, you know. And Fred suddenly looked up and said, ‘Okay, begin the scene!’ So we started. I'm playing the piano and it came to the point where Frank says, ‘Come on, why don't you stop this banging on the piano, will ya? Give us a chance with our music.’ And I stood up to say my first line. I said, ‘Listen, you little wop.’ He looked up at me, and as he looked up at me, he broke out into a smile and he said, ‘My God, he's ten feet tall!’ Do you know, the whole thing just collapsed. His laughter broke the tension. It was so marvelous. I've never forgotten Frank for that. He was the most wonderful guy to work with that you ever saw in your life. He knew how I must have felt, you know. And because of it, he took the time to break that tension. That's something that I have done with everybody that I've ever worked with since. I break the ice for the other people. And I think it's nice, because it reverberated all down the line.”
Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stayed friends. They would sign their Christmas cards to the other with their names in the movie: Maggio and Fatso. In 1956, Borgnine beat his friend on the Oscar. Sinatra was nominated for Man with the Golden Arm and Borgnine won with Marty. When Sinatra was roasted at the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast in 1978, Borgnine came out as Fatso to do his part of the roast.
A few other things Ernest Borgnine said about Sinatra:
Ernest Borgnine: “He was a good actor. He was right there on the ball.”
Ernest Borgnine: “I always used to speak with him in Italian and he always got a big kick out of when I called him ‘Franciscone.’”
Ernest Borgnine: “I loved him [Dean Martin] so much. He was just the most wonderful man. Like Frank Sinatra. Just two great, wonderful people. They were real. You know, a lot of people used to say bad things about them. ‘Oh, he's just a drunk’ or, you know, ‘he likes to fight’ and everything. No such thing.”