R. Lee Ermey

R. Lee Ermey, a former Marine whose barking, foulmouthed drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” highlighted a decades-long career in which he frequently portrayed authority figures, died on Sunday morning in a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 74.

His longtime manager, Bill Rogin, said the cause was complications of pneumonia.

Mr. Ermey, who was nicknamed the Gunny, earned a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor with his performance as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in “Full Metal Jacket,” released in 1987.

In a memorable opening monologue, Mr. Ermey’s character berates fear-stricken military recruits, hurling an avalanche of verbal insults that are both inventive and demeaning. His eyes bulging and his jaw square, he renames one recruit “Private Snowball,” knees another in the groin and chokes a third to stop him from smiling.

Later in the film, Mr. Ermey’s character admonishes a recruit, asking rhetorically in a now famous line: “What is your major malfunction?”

Mr. Ermey, whose dozens of acting credits included film and television roles, was also well-known for playing Sheriff Hoyt in the 2003 horror film “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” He notably portrayed a police captain in the 1995 crime drama “Se7en,” and was the voice of a green plastic solder named Sarge in the “Toy Story” franchise.

Ronald Lee Ermey was born on March 24, 1944, in Emporia, Kan., and moved to Washington State at age 11. He enlisted in the Marines immediately after graduating from high school and intended to spend decades in the military.

Much of the torrent of vicious language he unleashed in “Full Metal Jacket” was recalled from his days in boot camp and his 30 months as a Marine Corps drill instructor during the Vietnam War.

The clever, if obscene, tirades were of his own invention, Mr. Ermey told The New York Times in 1987.

“It was terrifying to those actors,” he said of the invective he spewed. “My objective was intimidation.”

Mr. Ermey’s 11-year career as a Marine was ended “by a rocket” in 1969, he said, but he would not talk about the war for the Times article, saying: “If a person’s wife and children were killed in a terrible automobile accident, 20 years later it will bother him to talk about it.”

With shrapnel still lodged in his back and arm, Mr. Ermey spent four months in a hospital. He eventually moved to the Philippines, where he married, attended college briefly and acted in television commercials.

He is survived by his wife, Marianila Ermey; his brothers Jack Ermey and Terry Ermey; his children Kim Bolt, Rhonda Chilton, Anna Liza Cruz, Betty Ermey, Evonne Ermey and Clinton Ermey; and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

By the late 1970s, Mr. Ermey had landed one of his first movie roles, as a helicopter pilot in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” He also served as a military adviser for the film.

He told The Times that he had given up “a good job and more money” — a supervisory role at a nuclear power plant that was under construction — for the part in “Full Metal Jacket” a few years later.

“I love being in front of the camera,” he said. “I get to play cowboy.”

His parents are not known by the hundreds of copying & pasting obituary writers because none of the writers are smart enough to know how to figure out what their names are.

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Actor, United States Marine. His best known role was that of ‘Gunnery Sergeant Hartman’ in motion picture director Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 Vietnam War film “Full Metal Jacket." Born in Emporia, Kansas, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1961 after being given the option of enlistment or jail due to a criminal mischief case when he was seventeen. He became a Marine Corps drill instructor, training recruits at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California from 1965 to 1967. He was then assigned first to Okinawa, Japan, then to Vietnam as part of Marine Wing Support Group 17, serving a fourteen-month tour there. He was medically discharged from the Marine Corps in 1972 because of injuries he sustained while in service. In 1979 he received a bit part in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war film "Apocalypse Now," and also served as a technical advisor to Coppola. This led to his role as Marine Corp drill instructor 'Sergeant Loyce' in the war film "The Boys in Company C." Director Kubrick hired him as technical director for "Full Metal Jacket," then cast him as ‘Sergeant Hartman’ after Ermey submitted a fifteen-minute audition tape showing him yelling improvised insults without any repetition while being pelted in the face with tennis balls. His performance, one which he improvised close to fifty percent of his dialogue, became iconic, and he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. He would go on perform in various roles in over sixty films, such as "Mississippi Burning" (1988), "The Frighteners" (1996), and "Switchback" (1997). He voiced cartoon characters, with his most well-known being the voice of Sarge, the plastic toy Army Man in Pixar’s "Toy Story" franchise, and hosted the shows "Mail Call" and "Lock ‘N Load with R. Lee Ermey" on the History Channel. He passed away in Santa Monica, California at age seventy-four. (bio by: [fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=309" target="_blank Russ)]

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 24 2018, 23:10:30 UTC