Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

Ernest Borgnine may have just celebrated his 93rd birthday, but he has no intention of slowing down. The Oscar winner, who made his first movie 59 years ago, has finished work on his latest big-screen project — the action-comedy "Red," with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren.

He tells us, "Bruce Willis looked at me and said, 'How the hell do you do it?' I said, 'Easy. I just keep going.' That's the only way. Otherwise, you become stagnated, you're an old man, and you're dead. I want to keep working until I'm 115. After that, I'll tell them all to go to hell," says Borgnine with a laugh.

He certainly hasn't had trouble getting work and, in fact, he's

opened himself up to a genre that he never knew could suit him so well — animation.

"I was thinking about my time in the service and being an actor not too long ago. I was actually portrayed as a bad guy for the longest time. People used to cast me only as a killer. By golly, we proved them wrong," notes Borgnine, who is now one of the most beloved cast members of the popular Nickelodeon show "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Borgnine and his longtime buddy Tim Conway are starring in the "SpongeBob" special "Back to the Past," airing tonight (2/15), which follows the adventures of their characters, over-the-hill superheroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.

"People love this show. I had just given a speech in D.C., and this woman came up and said there were a bunch of young girls there who had sent stuff to the troops overseas and she asked if I'd say hello. I asked how many of them had seen my pictures. Everyone was silent. Then it hit me. I said, 'How many of you know 'SpongeBob'? And everyone yelled out. I told them I was Mermaid Man so for the rest of the time, all I did was sign autographs. It was amazing. I even have men who are like 60 years old tell me that they love the show. I'm very proud of it."

THE FIGHT STUFF: "I'm a part of what Muhammad Ali does from 1971 till the day he dies. People can't toss me aside and act like I didn't exist," says retired boxer Larry Holmes, who is known for defeating Ali in the only non-decision loss of the famed boxer's career. "It means a great deal to me that I was the only one to stop him. That was a big day for me. I felt good. I thought he should have quit earlier," recalls Holmes of the match. "I was banging on him. I told him, 'Don't take no more of this.' He said something like, 'Shut up, boy, I'm going to knock your a— out.' He called me every name in the book.

He was trying to do what he usually does to people: psych 'em out so he could take advantage of them. It didn't work with me," he adds with a laugh.

Holmes is just one of the many boxers who appear in the award-winning documentary "Facing Ali," which airs Monday (1/15) on Spike TV. It delves into the fascinating life of boxing legend Ali in and out of the ring through the eyes of those who fought him. "I hope they did a good job portraying Ali and I hope they did a good job with me," says Holmes. He tells us a recent newsmagazine show "did a story, but I didn't like the way they portrayed Ali as using drugs before he fought me because it took away my credibility and made it look like he was some kind of drug guy. That wasn't the case. He was a great guy. I was his sparring partner for four years and I learned an awful lot. I got to like him and I still do."

RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES: Gorgeous red-haired actress Tanna Frederick, star of Henry Jaglom's "Hollywood Dreams" and "Irene in Time," also happens to be one of the better movie-star marathoners, having finished the Chicago Marathon in four hours and eight minutes. (Better than, say, Katie Holmes, who did a roughly five-and-a half-hour marathon — but not as good as Will Ferrell, Edward Norton or Ryan Reynolds, who ran 26.2-mile races in 3:56, 3:48 and 3:50, respectively.)

Frederick isn't just running for the joy of it. She's putting her heart and soles into the cause of helping those with mental problems. She's running the Los Angeles Marathon in March (goal time: 3:20) as a fundraiser for the North Iowa Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NIAMI), and the North Iowa Transition Center. She'll also "be doing the Boston for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the North Iowa Alliance, and the Malibu for the same," she lets us know. Frederick's mother is a psychiatric nurse and mental health teacher at a college in northern Iowa, and she notes that she grew up "educated and empathetic about mental illness as biochemical and neurobiological disorders. I know that funding for the mentally ill is inadequate and that their needs are great."

The community-minded actress also spearheads an annual surfing, music, film and eco-fashion festival. This year's Project Save Our Surf: Surf 24 is set for June 19 and 20 in Huntington Beach, Calif.

ACTION, AND CUT: Dean Cain counts himself lucky for his role in the forthcoming Blu-ray and DVD release movie "Circle of Pain." "I'm a fan of Mixed Martial Arts, and I had to fight Tony Schiena, the world champion karate guy, in this movie. I was very sore, but I was fortunate," says Cain. "That was the only physical part of the movie for me. My character suffers an accident in that fight and I get paralyzed, and I spend most of the movie paralyzed."

With reports by Emily-Fortune Feimster

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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