God apparently ran a little low on Gunnies in Heaven.
From the UKIndependent.com:
R Lee Ermey, a former Marine who made a career in Hollywood playing hard-nosed military men like Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket,” has died.
Ermey’s longtime manager Bill Rogin says he died Sunday morning from pneumonia-related complications. He was 74.
The Kanas native was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his memorable performance in “Full Metal Jacket,” in which he immortalised lines such as: “What is your major malfunction?”
Born Ronald Lee Ermey in 1944, Ermey served 11 years in the Marine Corps and spent 14 months in Vietnam and then in Okinawa, Japan, where he became staff sergeant. His first film credit was as a helicopter pilot in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” which was quickly followed by a part in “The Boys in Company C” as a drill instructor.
He raked in more than 60 credits in film and television across his long career in the industry, often playing authority figures in everything from “Se7en” to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” remake.
But check this out:
The part he would become most well-known for, in “Full Metal Jacket,” wasn’t even originally his. Ermey had been brought on as a technical consultant for the 1987 film, but he had his eyes on the role of the brutal gunnery sergeant and filmed his own audition tape of him yelling out insults while tennis balls flew at him. An impressed Kubrick gave him the role.
In 1961, at age 17, Ermey enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and went through recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in San Diego, California.[2] For his first few years, he served in the aviation support field before becoming a drill instructor in India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, where he was assigned from 1965 to 1967.[4]
Ermey then served in Marine Wing Support Group 17 at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, Japan.[2] In 1968, he was ordered to Vietnam with MWSG-17, and spent 14 months in country. The remainder of his service was on Okinawa where he was advanced to staff sergeant (E-6). He was medically discharged in 1972 because of several injuries incurred during his service.[5] On May 17, 2002, he received an honorary promotion to gunnery sergeant (E-7) by the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James L. Jones.[6]
Here’s is Ermey’s second role, as that of an Eagle Thrust Seven helicopter pilot (listen and watch for him to say “I’m going to check it out below”).
R Lee Ermey’s first role was as drill instructor Staff Sergeant Sgt Loyce for the 1978 Sidney Furie film “The Boys In Company C,” a role so remarkably real because, well, it’s what Ermey did in his beloved corps.
Following The Boys of Company C, Ermey appeared in 1979’s Francis Ford Coppola-directed Apocalypse Now as indicated above — though completely uncredited in the movie.
He was next in a terrible 1979 science fiction entitled “Up From the Depths” as Lee. He returned for director Sidney Furie in 1984’s “Purple Hearts” where he appeared as Gunny.
R. Lee Ermey’s big break came in 1987 for director Stanley Kubrick in “Full Metal Jacket” where he portrayed Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The classic scene follows.
Here, Ermey talks about filming Full Metal Jacket for the History Channel.
Kubrick told Rolling Stone that 50 percent of Ermey’s dialogue in the film was his own.
“In the course of hiring the marine recruits, we interviewed hundreds of guys. We lined them all up and did an improvisation of the first meeting with the drill instructor. They didn’t know what he was going to say, and we could see how they reacted. Lee came up with, I don’t know, 150 pages of insults,” Kubrick said.
According to Kubrick, Ermey also had a terrible car accident one night in the middle of production and was out for four and half months with broken ribs.
It’s no surprise that Ermey was a conservative. This should leave no doubt.
However, like many other actors in Hollywood who “come out” as Conservative, Ermey’s film roles dried up.
The Marine turned actor told FOX411 while his reality show is in its second season, he can’t seem to book any other gigs in Hollywood.
“I’ve had a very fruitful career. I’ve done over 70 feature films,” Gunny told FOX411. “I’ve done over 200 episodes of [‘GunnyTime’]… and then [Hollywood] found out that I’m a Conservative.”
Actually, he corrected, “I’m an Independent, but I said something bad about the president. I had something unsavory to say about the president’s administration, and even though I did vote for him the first time around, I was blackballed.”
Gunny, who is an NRA board member, explained that his association with the organization and his disapproval of President Obama cost him acting jobs.
“Do you realize I have not done a movie in five to six years? Why? Because I was totally blackballed by the… liberals in Hollywood,” he alleged. “They can destroy you. They’re hateful people [who] don’t just not like you, they want to take away your livelihood… that’s why I live up in the desert on a dirt road… I don’t have to put up with their crap.”
Ermey earned a Golden Globe nomination as Sgt Hartman, and:
Ermey was an official spokesman for Black Book (National Auto Research), Glock firearms, TRU-SPEC apparel, Tupperware, Victory Motorcycles, Hoover, SOG Specialty Knives, WD-40, Young Marines, and appeared in commercials for Coors Light, Dick’s Sporting Goods, GEICO, and pistachio nuts. He provided the introduction for the Professional Bull Riders.[16] He can be seen giving a service announcement for Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas, demanding that viewers be quiet during the film.[17] He was a board member for the National Rifle Association.[18]
Ermey’s Gunny Time was an arseload of fun as well.
And if this isn’t damned funny, I don’t know what is.
What did the “R” stand for in his name? Ronald.
God bless you Gunny.
We miss you already.
BZ
