Tova Borgnine, the Norwegian-born cosmetics entrepreneur and home-shopping star who was known not just for selling beauty products but also for being the fifth wife and most enduring relationship of the actor Ernest Borgnine, died on Feb. 26 at her home in Chester County, Pa. She was 80 years old.
The president of Tova Beverly Hills, Ms. Borgnine, announced her death. She didn't give a reason.
Mr. Borgnine was wary of Ms. Borgnine after she was introduced to him by Marty Allen. His third marriage, to Ethel Merman, lasted only five weeks. Ms. Borgnine was married three times when they met. They both had experience and a match was made. The couple wed in 1973.
Mr. Borgnine told People magazine that he never got married because he wanted a happy home.
The Borgnines published a book in 1997 called Being Married happily forever: 22 Secrets, 12 Strategies.
She wrote, boiling down the book's lessons, "focus your attention on your husband." He should be the leader of your pack.
Ms. Borgnine believed in pre-feminist values, but she left the household chores to her husband. His son, Cristofer Borgnine, said that his father was a holdover from his military service and liked to cook and clean.
The Borgnines said that their careers kept them apart half the time. The craggy-faced Mr. Borgnine made over 100 films in a career that spanned six decades.
Ms. Borgnine had success with an exotic skin care line that had a back story. She was worried that the dry desert air was making her customers look older than they were, so she set out to find an ingredient to correct their skin. As the story goes, she pressed the actress to reveal the secret to her glowing complexion, which turned out to be a mask made from a family in Mexico. The family agreed to sell Ms. Borgnine the formula after she tracked them down.
In the fall of 1976, before she had a proper company or had sorted out manufacturing and distribution, an item in a syndicated gossip column noted Mr. Borgnine's own newly glowing complexion and plugged his wife's face mask. The Borgnines told them that they had received hundreds of letters requesting the product, and checks totaling $56,000.
Ms. Borgnine liked to say that it must have been a slow news day.
The business was pitched by the Borgnines. They called it Tova 9 because of their last name. Mr. Borgnine said he wasGuinea Pig No. 1 and recalled his wife telling him to use her mask.
He told The that she told him to try it.
In an interview, Cristofer Borgnine confirmed that the tales were not apocryphal, and that his famous features were frozen in a bright pink face mask.
Mr. Borgnine would boast to reporters that he shaves with it, cleans his teeth with it, and smooths his skin with it. Burt Reynolds was a catalog shopper. They were as well. Ms. Borgnine's business was only mail order. She added a line at his request in the early 1980s.
Tove Traesnaes was born in 1941. Her mother was a translator and her father was a graphic artist.
When her parents divorced, Tove moved with her mother to New York City. She wanted to be an actress or a model, but she also learned makeup artistry. After two early marriages ended in divorce, she moved to Las Vegas to be with her mother and opened a cosmetics boutique on the Jersey Shore called Tova's Touch. She ran makeup concessions in casino hotels. She changed her name to Tova.
Ms. Borgnine is survived by her son, son-in-law, two stepdaughters, and six grandchildren. Ernest Borgnine died in 2012
Ms. Borgnine was a star of the home shopping network. She sold her beauty line and perfume there for the next 30 years. She sold jewelry as well. Ms. Uram said her pre-pandemic sales were between 15 million and 20 million a year.
Ms. Borgnine was a perfect pitchwoman. She noted its effervescence, like Champagne tickling your nose, and its aphrodisiac qualities.
The chirpy co-hosts of late-night television were upstaging them by upstaging them by upstaging them by upstaging them by upstaging them by upstaging them by upstaging them by upstaging them by upstaging them by up
Ms. Borgnine told her young co-host to spray it around.
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