After retiring from the military with 11 years of service under his belt, Ermey took some acting classes and was cast in one of his first roles, playing a helicopter pilot in 1979’s Apocalypse Now, and also serving as a technical adviser to director Francis Ford Coppola on the film. Another role he landed around that same time also hit close to home, playing a Marine drill instructor in Sidney Furie’s The Boys in Company C.
But it was his role in Kubrick’s 1987 film Full Metal Jacket that brought him also earned him a best-supporting actor award from the Boston Society of Film Critics. However, he’s probably best remembered for the numerous memorable lines he delivered as the no-nonsense sergeant: including: “What is your major malfunction numbnuts? Didn’t mommy and daddy show you enough attention when you were a child?” and “I want that head so sanitary and squared away that the Virgin Mary herself would be proud to go in there and take a dump.”
Other films credits include Mississippi Burning, Prefontaine, the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Fletch Lives, Se7en. He also had a healthy voice-over career, playing the lead of the green plastic Army soldiers in the Toy Story films along with a role in SpongeBob SquarePants, among others.
More recently, he hosted Outdoor Channel’s GunnyTime With R. Lee Ermey.
On top of his voice acting, he hosted two programs for the History Channel: “Mail Call,” in which he provided expertise on military issues, both modern and historic, and “Lock N’ Load with R. Lee Ermey,” which focused on the development of different types of weapons.
Ermey married his wife, Nila, in 1975. They have four children. In Ermey’s television show Lock N’ Load with R. Lee Ermey, he refers to his wife as “Mrs. Gunny”. He is also the official celebrity spokesperson of the youth organization, Young Marines.
Ermey died from complications related to pneumonia on the morning of April 15, 2018.He was 74 years old.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter and Variety
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