Ernest Borgnine, the US actor whose career spanned six decades, has died aged 95.

Borgnine passed away in Los Angeles with his family by his side following a short illness.

The burly star often portrayed tough characters, including the heavy who beat up Frank Sinatra in From Here to Eternity (1953), an outlaw in Sam Peckinpah’s bloody western The Wild Bunch (1969) and murderous railroad chief Shack in Emperor of the North (1973).

But it was playing against type as an unlucky-in-love Bronx butcher in 1955 movie Marty that Borgnine won the hearts of audiences and critics alike, bagging the Academy Award for leading actor.

"The Oscar made me a star and I'm grateful," Borgnine said in an interview a decade later. "But I feel had I not won the Oscar I wouldn't have gotten into the messes I did in my personal life."

He was referring in part to four failed marriages, although his fifth, to Norwegian-born Tova Traesnaes in 1973, lasted until Borgnine's death.

Also known later in his career for lighter TV parts, including that of sidekick Dominic Santini in cult 80s show Airwolf, Borgnine continued to act right up until he died.

In his last role, in movie The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez, he played an old man who is bitter about an unfulfilled life but finds a fame of sorts when the Latino staff of his nursing home discover he has met a Mexican singer and actor they idolise.

Watch Ernest Borgnine's Oscar-winning performance in Marty (1955)

See Borgnine getting tough with Lee Marvin in the trailer for Emperor of the North (1973)