R. Lee Ermey (Full Metal Jacket) R.I.P.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-r-lee-ermey-20180415-story.html

He was the greatest and most convincing military figure in movie history.

I liked him in everything he appeared.

That sucks!  RIP.

Now I'm going to have FMJ dialog in my head all day.

"Get down off my obstacle!"

I saw this yesterday. Even know it's not any of our business, I was hoping to know how he died. I hadn't heard that he was in bad health.

R.I.P.

metalinmyveins wrote:

I saw this yesterday. Even know it's not any of our business, I was hoping to know how he died. I hadn't heard that he was in bad health.

R.I.P.

I read it was complications rising from pneumonia. I was surprised that he was only 74. I would've guessed older.

Semper Fi, Gunny. Thanks for the memories.

RIP to one of my all time faves

R.I.P sir.

I haven't seen "Full Metal Jacket" in years but weirdly enough, I heard a lot of R. Lee Ermey's voice when my kids were small because he frequently turned up in cartoons. I know I heard him voicing characters on Spongebob, Fairly OddParents and quite a few others. I imagine that he was the "go-to" guy if you needed a voice for a tough guy/military cartoon character .

He was also in the remakes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre

One of my favorite quotes from FMJ is "You are all equally worthless.  You are not even human f'n beings.  You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian s**t!"


So golden!  Why unorganized?  "Grabastic"? And why amphibian?  Just the juxtaposition of all that always cracks me up every time I watch the flick.

I've always wondered how much of the stuff he says in FMJ was improvised.

RIP. Fair winds and a following sea, Gunny.

IIRC, Kubrick originally wanted him to stick to the script, but Ermey somehow convinced him to let him ad-lib everything.

tohostudios wrote:

I've always wondered how much of the stuff he says in FMJ was improvised.

It was my understanding that Kubrick hired him as a consultant for the film but Ermey ended up auditioning for the part. After letting loose a 10 minute tirade without stopping or repeating himself, Kubrick cast him and they re-wrote his dialog together.

He was perfect for his role in FMJ because he was a real Marine from the Vietnam war.

Ermey is so perfect in that role.  I'll never forget the first time I saw FMJ.  I was expecting a weird, gory war movie - after all Kubrick was at the helm.  I sure wasn't expecting to laugh my ass off for the first half of the movie but that's sure what happened, all thanks to the performance of R. Lee Ermey.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I've always wondered how much of the stuff he says in FMJ was improvised.

It was my understanding that Kubrick hired him as a consultant for the film but Ermey ended up auditioning for the part. After letting loose a 10 minute tirade without stopping or repeating himself, Kubrick cast him and they re-wrote his dialog together.

The article I read said he improvised 50% of his dialogue.

Go to about the 11:00 minute mark. He talks about it here...

I wonder how many people were scared to join the Marines because of Ermey's character in the movie?

tohostudios wrote:

Ermey is so perfect in that role.  I'll never forget the first time I saw FMJ.  I was expecting a weird, gory war movie - after all Kubrick was at the helm.  I sure wasn't expecting to laugh my ass off for the first half of the movie but that's sure what happened, all thanks to the performance of R. Lee Ermey.

The first time I saw it, during the footlocker inspection, I couldn't imagine what he was going to pull out of Gomer Pyle's gear. A jelly donut was not expected.

Now I'm going to have to find and watch that whole interview.

With all the horror movies I've seen and all the icons of such movies, I swear one of my all time favorite icons of cinema is Gunnery Sgt. Hartman.

Troublezone wrote:

I wonder how many people were scared to join the Marines because of Ermey's character in the movie?

My father didn't like that movie because of him. He served in the army, not marines, but the drill sergeant scenes struck a nerve I guess.

According to Ermey, he was blacklisted in Hollywood by the liberals because they didn't like something he said about Obama.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

I wonder how many people were scared to join the Marines because of Ermey's character in the movie?

My father didn't like that movie because of him. He served in the army, not marines, but the drill sergeant scenes struck a nerve I guess.

Yeah like I mentioned before, Ermey was very real and convincing!