I was wrong about Ernest Borgnine’s age while driving his RV in the previously posted clip. He wasn’t 95 when this footage was shot. He was eighty. Well, that makes me feel a hell of a lot better.
Not really. I’m still rather stunned that Borgnine piloted this behemoth (while towing a Ford Explorer to boot) in his ninth decade and I have to say I had an uncomfortable time making it through the above ten minute clip, which is from a 1997 documentary called ‘Ernest Borgnine On The Bus’. Every time Borgnine launches into an anecdote I felt like urging him to pay exclusive attention to the road and that we’d rehash old Hollywood stories later, over a crappy diner dinner (Meat loaf, or Turkey with Gravy, or Steak and Eggs…you get the idea). He tells a story of a hair-rasing ride he had heading down a mountain in Colorado and how surprised he was that he made it. Which made me understandably and correctly nauseous. And when he got to the tollbooth I briefly panicked that the bus wouldn’t make it through the overhead plaza thingy, possibly causing it to tip over into extinction. Finally, Borgnine spies some sort of dorky amusement park on the right and turns his head (while driving) to get a better look, without slowing down of course. Excuse me while I wash a Valium down with some Stoli…