BORGNINE DEAD AT 96

Ernest Borgnine died Sunday of apparent kidney failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his longtime publicist, Harry Flynn, told The Times. Borgnine went into the hospital "a couple of days ago" for a checkup, the Medical center reported.

Audiences first took notice of the stocky, gap-toothed Borgnine in the 1953 movie "From Here to Eternity," in which he played "Fatso" Judson, the sadistic stockade sergeant of the guard who viciously beats up Frank Sinatra's Pvt. Angelo Maggio in the adaptation of James Jones' acclaimed novel depicting Army life in Hawaii before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

He was 96 years old.