Editing Ernest Borgnine (section)

===1946–1952: Theatre and television roles ===
Borgnine returned to his parents' house in Connecticut after his Navy discharge without a job to go back to and no direction. In a British Film Institute interview about his life and career, he said:

{{blockquote|After World War II, we wanted no more part in war. I didn't even want to be a Boy Scout. I went home and said that I was through with the Navy and so now, what do we do? So I went home to mother, and after a few weeks of patting me on the back and "You did good," and everything else, one day she said, "Well?" like mothers do. Which meant, "All right, you gonna get a job or what?"<ref name="bfi.org.uk">{{cite web| url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/video/12| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101012063225/http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/video/12| url-status=dead| archive-date=October 12, 2010| title=Marty + Ernest Borgnine in Conversation| publisher=[[British Film Institute]]| date=10 October 2007| access-date=2012-11-08}}</ref>}}

He took a local factory job, but was unwilling to settle down to that kind of work. His mother encouraged him to pursue a more glamorous profession, and suggested to him that his personality would be well suited for the stage. He surprised his mother by taking the suggestion to heart, although his father was far from enthusiastic. In 2011, Borgnine remembered,

{{blockquote|She said, "You always like getting in front of people and making a fool of yourself, why don't you give it a try?" I was sitting at the kitchen table and I saw this light. No kidding. It sounds crazy. And 10 years later, I had [[Grace Kelly]] handing me an [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Academy Award]].}}

He studied acting at the Randall School of Drama in Hartford, then moved to Virginia, where he became a member of the [[Barter Theatre]] in [[Abingdon, Virginia]].<ref name="NYTobit">{{Cite news|first=Anita|last=Gates|title=Ernest Borgnine, Oscar-Winning Actor, Dies at 95|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/movies/ernest-borgnine-tough-but-tender-actor-is-dead-at-95.html| work=[[The New York Times]]|url-access=subscription|date=8 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102092441/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/movies/ernest-borgnine-tough-but-tender-actor-is-dead-at-95.html|archive-date=2 January 2023|access-date=27 July 2023|url-status=live}}</ref> It had been named for the director's allowing audiences to barter produce for admission during the cash-lean years of the [[Great Depression]]. In 1947, Borgnine landed his first stage role in ''[[State of the Union (play)|State of the Union]]''. Although it was a short role, he won over the audience. His next role was as the Gentleman Caller in [[Tennessee Williams]]' ''[[The Glass Menagerie]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://patch.com/connecticut/clinton/north-havens-own-ernest-borgnine-dies-at-95-ad33b448 | title=Ernest Borgnine Grew up in North Haven | date=July 10, 2012 }}</ref>

In 1949, Borgnine went to New York, where he had his [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] debut in the role of a nurse in the play ''[[Harvey (play)|Harvey]]''. Borgnine made his TV debut as a character actor in ''[[Captain Video and His Video Rangers]]'', beginning in 1951. These two episodes led to countless other television roles that Borgnine would gain in ''[[Goodyear Television Playhouse]]'', ''[[The Ford Television Theatre]]'', ''[[Fireside Theatre]]'', ''[[Frontier Justice (TV series)|Frontier Justice]]'', ''[[Laramie (TV series)|Laramie]]'', ''[[Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre]]'', and ''[[Run for Your Life (TV series)|Run for Your Life]]''. An appearance as the villain on TV's ''[[Captain Video and His Video Rangers|Captain Video]]'' led to Borgnine's casting in the motion picture ''[[The Whistle at Eaton Falls]]'' (1951) for Columbia Pictures.<ref>Kisseloff, Jeff; THE BOX: An Oral History of Television, 1929–1961; Viking Penguin, 1995</ref> Later on, in 1957, he would appear in the first episode of the TV series ''[[Wagon Train]]''.