Gunny R. Lee Ermey (USMC)
Character actor R. Lee Ermey specializes in playing tough military men and authority figures on television and in feature films. In his case, it is an issue of art imitating life, for he served as a non-commissioned officer in Vietnam. Injuries forced him to retire from active duty. In order to stretch his disability pay farther, he moved to the Philippines and, while there, studied criminology. Ermey broke into films while he was living in Manila. Every morning, he would stop in at a coffee shop at the city's Hilton hotel. The place was a popular hangout for Hollywood directors, one of whom noticed Ermey and asked him to pose for a series of ads for blue jeans. This experience led to his film debut, a role as a retired soldier in a local production. By 1976, he had appeared in several Filipino films. He broke into Hollywood films that year, when he visited the set for Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and got himself hired as a helicopter pilot. The ex-officer's Vietnam experience came in handy and Coppola utilized him as a technical advisor. He made his acting debut in an American film in Sidney J. Furie's comedy-drama The Boys in Company C (1978). Ermey worked again with Furie as technical advisor and actor in Purple Hearts (1984). The former marine got his biggest break in Stanley Kubrick's powerful Full Metal Jacket (1987). His profane, ruthless, and intense portrayal of Marine gunnery sergeant Hartman, who had the thankless, brutal job of toughening up raw recruits before sending them to Vietnam dominated the film's first 45 minutes and provides an unforgettably realistic, disturbing portrait of military training. Since then, Ermey has worked steadily in films and as a television guest star. (Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide) RLeeErmey.com