Tova Traesnaes Borgnine, (born November 17, 1941 in Oslo[1]), is a Norwegian-American business-woman, the founder of the Beauty By Tova cosmetics featured on QVC shopping network since 1990, and wife of actor Ernest Borgnine.
Traesnaes was born in Oslo, where her father was a graphic artist and her mother a translator at the U.S. Embassy. Following her parents' separation, she moved to the U.S. in 1953 with her mother. She studied acting in Manhattan, but developed a fondness for applying makeup rather than wearing it. After marrying a New Jersey businessman she opened her own makeup center. When the marriage failed, she moved to Las Vegas to be near her mother.[1]
She is the fifth and current wife of the actor Ernest Borgnine, whom she married on February 24, 1973.[2]
In Vegas she launched a cactus-based face cream made from a formula by a Mexican family. Word was soon out that Hollywood stars were clamoring for the "facelift in a jar," and orders flooded in. To fill the orders she travelled to Mexico to pick up the brew herself, and with her husband and some friends worked day and night filling jars and shipping them off.[1]
She divides her time between Beverly Hills, California and West Chester, Pennsylvania, home of QVC. According to QVC, as of 2001, her perfumes had been featured on the network for over ten years, with sales continuing to grow, making her "a steady presence at QVC and its biggest fragrance vendor".[3]
In 1998, Tova Borgnine was awarded the FiFi award for the Women's Fragrance Star of the Year (Non-Store Venues).[4] On April 25, 2008, she was nominated for the 2008 FiFi awards.[5]