Actor Ernest Borgnine, shown Oct. 27, 2008, will be in Toronto for FanExpo this weekend. (Matt Sayles/Associated Press)

At 93, actor Ernest Borgnine is finding that his fanbase just keeps getting younger and younger.

The Oscar winner says he's a hit with the kids these days thanks to his role as Mermaid Man on the animated series SpongeBob Squarepants.

Borgnine says he made the discovery when he recently met a group of Girl Guides in Washington.

He says when he asked them if they had seen any of the 200-plus films he has been in, he got no response. But when he said he was Mermaid Man in SpongeBob, they went wild.

Borgnine visits Toronto this weekend for the 16th annual FanExpo Canada convention.

He is also busy promoting several films, including the upcoming Red with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Richard Dreyfuss, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich.

In January, he'll also get a Screen Actors Guild lifetime achievement award. Borgnine won an Oscar in 1956 for Marty, and is best known to older viewers for his role in The Wild Bunch and TV's McHale's Navy.

Borgnine says some people have told him he's too old to keep working, but he never wants to quit because he loves acting.