Obituaries

R. Lee Ermey, a Golden Globe-nominated actor best known for his role as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket has died. Ermey, whose nickname was "The Gunny," died Sunday morning from complications of pneumonia. He was 74. R. Lee Ermey - Getty Images (The Hollywood Reporter) The news was announced via his official Twitter account by his longtime manager, Bill Rogin. “It is with great sadness that I regret to inform you all that R. Lee Ermey (‘The Gunny’) passed away this morning from complications of pneumonia. He will be greatly missed by all of us,” the tweet reads. Ermey not only played a member of the military in the movies, but he also was one in real life, having been a U.S. Marine Corps staff sergeant and an honorary gunnery sergeant. He also served as a drill instructor for the Marines. Ermey also served 14 months in Vietnam and completed two tours in Okinawa, Japan. Both March 24, 1944, in Emporia, Kan., Ermey's family moved to Toppenish, Wash. when he was 14. There, he became a "troublemaker and a bit of a hell-raiser," he told the Civilian Marksmanship Program's online magazine in September 2010, and he found himself in court multiple times. "Basically, a silver-haired judge, a kindly old judge, looked down at me and said, ‘This is the second time I've seen you up here and it looks like we're going to have to do something about this," he told CMP. "He gave me a choice. He said I could either go into the military — any branch I wanted to go to — or he was going to send me where the sun never shines. And I love sunshine, I don't know about you." Retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey takes a break for a smoke outside New River Air Station's Staff NCO club, in this May 15, 2006 (chicago.suntimes.com) 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. R. Lee Ermey Gunny Glock (Tactical Life) 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." www.awardscircuit.com 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. radiogunk.com 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. ABC News 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 See Tributes on NEXT page... https://twitter.com/jumblejim/status/985668745329807360 https://twitter.com/DanLaMorte/status/985670673287843841 https://twitter.com/TLCplMax/status/985669528318169088 https://twitter.com/JohnFugelsang/status/985663715256209410 https://twitter.com/nichegamer/status/985655125195808769 https://twitter.com/EsotericCD/status/985662452921749504 https://twitter.com/KurtSchlichter/status/985672051594690560