I am becoming convinced that if you’re going to read only one obit for a prominent cultural figure, the obit to read is the Onion A/V Club’s. It seems to me that the writers for that site, especially Sean O’Neal, consistently manage to do a great job on tight deadlines summarizing why someone who just died was important, and do so with no snark or cruelty. In addition, the A/V Club doesn’t require logins or subscriptions.
Anyway, Ernest Borgnine: A/V Club. (I’m happy to see that so many of the obits mention his key role in The Wild Bunch
Edited to add: And, oddly enough, a nice tribute from Patrick at Popehat, guest blogging at Balko’s site.