So Long, Ernie!

I heard the sad news that Ernest Borgnine died today at the ripe old age of 95. What with this and the passing of Andy Griffith last week, we've lost two major stars of the classic TV era. Of course, apart from his starring role on McHale's Navy, Ernie was even more well known as a veteran character actor from the movies, earning an Academy Award for his poignant portrayal of the lonely New York butcher in the heartbreaking Marty, scripted by the brilliant Paddy Chayefsky.

It was just two years ago that Ernest Borgnine was a special guest at the Toronto Fan Expo, where he was signing autographs and chatting with his fans. Though I am certainly an avid autograph collector, I've made it my policy to only seek out celebrities that I actually really admire, which is why I attended the event that year specifically to meet Ernie, as well as Julie Newmar (the Catwoman on TV's Batman). As is often the case at Fan Expo, the longest line-ups of fans are usually found at the tables with the current crop of young actors and actresses from various sci-fi/fantasy movies and TV series. I feel sorry for the veteran performers who don't usually get as much traffic at their tables, although it works out well for me, as these are the only performers that I truly wish to meet.

As there were only a handful of people in line before me, I was able to meet Ernie fairly quickly. He greeted all of his fans with that familiar big gap-toothed grin and he was just so warm and inviting with everyone who came up to meet with him. Whereas some of the stars were not permitting photos to be taken (due to paid for photo ops being organized later in the day), Ernie was only too happy to pose for photos with his fans. I always ink up two originals of my caricatures so that I can present one to the star as a gift and get them to sign the second one for me, so that is what you see here in these pics that accompany this post. Ernie seemed genuinely delighted with my caricature of him in his role of TV's Quinton McHale.

Later in the day I noticed that there was nobody currently in line to see Ernest Borgnine, so I decided to use the opportunity to go up and chat with him some more, as I wanted to ask him about his costarring alongside Frank Sinatra in From Here To Eternity. He was happy to chat about his role in the film, adding that he thought Frank had a lot of courage to work for scale in that pic, as his career at that time needed a boost. He and Frank became good friends on that film (despite the fact that Ernie's character, "Fatso" beats Sinatra's "Maggio" to death!), and he said he was overjoyed when Frank earned the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor that year.

I've been fortunate enough to meet many film personalities that I've admired over the years, but Ernest Borgnine will always stand out among the rest, as he was honestly such a joyful and sweet man. In his honour, I just watched him again in Marty this evening - such a touching performance from a truly wonderful human being.

Fan Expo 2010 (pt. 1)

On Saturday, August 28th I went to Toronto's Fan Expo at the Toronto Convention Centre down on Front St. Here's the first selection of pics I took that day at the event. I'll post up all of the costumed fans in a second installment.

"Welcome to Fan Expo 2010, foolish mortals".

Some neat Batman sculpts.

More DC Comics figurines.

Holy Dynamic Duo! It's Adam West and Burt Ward from TV's Batman!

Here's the (now autographed) caricature I drew of Julie Newmar, who played Catwoman on Batman and "Stupefyin' Jones" from the movie version of Li'l Abner, among other roles.

Here I am with the still stupefyin' Julie Newmar herself!

Here's legendary actor, Ernest Borgnine, who was the main reason for me wanting to attend Fan Expo this year. Ernie was just wonderful, greeting all of his fans with a big friendly handshake and happy to chat with them.

Ernie was thrilled with the caricature I gave him, and autographed the second copy for me. Though a lot of years have passed since he starred in McHale's Navy, he still has that great big gap-toothed smile and a real twinkle in his eyes. Just a really sweet guy!

This is my pal, Ken Steacy, comic artist extraordinaire.

Here's the always fun Lar DeSouza, a great cartoonist and a fellow member of the International Society of Caricature Artists (ISCA).

Coincidentally, only a week before Fan Expo I had stumbled upon the website of Jason Edmiston. This guy is just a brilliant talent, shown here with one of his original acrylic paintings.

Here are Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera, Sheridan grads and founders of the very successful Schoolism online art courses. They also were responsible for many of the character design concepts for Tim Burton's recent Alice in Wonderland.
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Sheridan grads, Jen Tisdale and Braden Poirier sell their wares.

Sheridan grads, Damian Czerniakiewicz and Christina Deljanov, with some of Chris's great art prints on display.

Sheridan grad, Perry Osuna. He was in the year before I started teaching, so I didn't have the pleasure of having him in my class. Very talented cartoonist!

Sheridan grads, Ogi Grujic and Brian Paquette ham it up for the camera.

Recent grads, Ben Thomas and Wayne-Michael Lee ponder what life will now be like after Sheridan College. If animation doesn't work out, they could always become masked crime fighters like Batman.

I'll continue in the next post with all of the fun costumed fans!....