R. Lee Ermey Will Be Remembered for One Role: 'Full Metal Jacket' Golden Globe Nominee

Variety ^ | 4/16/18 | Owen Glieberman

[Salvavida]

He lost the 1988 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor to: Sean Connery in "The Untouchables."

They got that wrong.

[beelzepug]

I was Army but I will miss the Gunny as much as any Marine. This man was the epitome of the breed and I would give anything to have met him. R.I.P. GSGT Ermey.

[lakeman]

Yes that is a fact. When I first saw FMJ I had just discharged from the Corps back in 85. I commented that that is what boot camp was like, my Mom was terrified(I could finish some of his lines when he would start them lol)That time frame of training was called hands on and confirmed by my sons DI at PI graduation on 2-9-18. I like to rub in the Old Corps to my son.

[lakeman]

So you joined the Marine Corps instead?

[TTFlyer]

Well said.

[ethom]

that was a great performance too! two of the all time best in one year...

[SpinnerWebb]

I would have gotten my eyeballs gouged out, and... well, you know the rest.

[Yo-Yo]

R. Lee Ermey for pistachios.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGqO3vE1PdY

[BBell]

I went in in 85 and I was on active duty when I watched the movie with a friend of mine. For what ever reason I did not like it. When I finally got a vcr and watched it again a few years later I loved it. Over the years I have become more of a Stanley Kubrick fan.

Same with me, I told people that boot camp, with the exception of the choking,punching etc.(was not allowed when I went through), was just like that. I went to San Diego. I hated having to constantly have civilization in my face all the time. I would have rather stared at nothing like at P.I.

[Salvavida]

It was a “good” performance. But it wasn’t iconic like Gunny’s.

[Billthedrill]

Better than I would have expected from Variety. Ermey's performance was also a gleeful shout-out to everyone who'd ever been in the military and I don't know many, and no Marines at all, who didn't get it. What was best about it was the number of civilians, especially of the deep-thinking liberal variety, who didn't.

[petro45acp]

“...another Marine reporting sir...”

God’s speed Gunny

KYPD

[lakeman]

There was definitely some hands on activity at PI. Anybody remember the small gear locker?

[NTHockey]

Served 4 years in the Corps. My kids could never understand why I would laugh throughout the boot camp part of the movie. It was all true.

[FLT-bird]

The thing is as you watched the Gunny, you just knew in your bones he was NOT acting. It was too real for that to be acting. Hollywood types wouldn’t be able to write dialogue like that and an actor wouldn’t have been able to deliver it like that......if he wasn’t a real DI.....if he hadn’t lived it which the Gunny obviously had. You just knew he had barked all those same lines into recruits’ faces for real. Welcome to the USMC.

[Spacetrucker]

Gear locker ... nightmares for years 😃

[Telepathic Intruder]

No, that’s not as much joining as committing suicide. The National Guard was more my thing.

[Dr. Sivana]

It’s always good business for a company to move on from one of it’s most memorable ads to something else. s/

Actually, it is. That's why Verizon moved on from the "Can you hear me?" ads, and T-Mobil from the girl in the pink dress ads, Taco Bell from the "yo quiero Taco Bell" Chihuahua, Apple from "I'm a PC... I'm a Mac" and Bud Light from Spuds MacKenzie.

There are exceptions ... Morris the Cat for 9 Lives, and Mr. Whipple for Charmin (until he died). Ditto Madge for Palmolive.

[gundog]

And he’s great in “The Siege of Firebase Gloria.”

[DJ Taylor]

I remember "Full Metal Jacket" to be very close to the experience I had at Boot Camp in 1959. About the only thing missing in the movie was the physical violence that was inflicted on us on a daily basis.

The black DI in the photo is Sergeant (E-4) W.W. Almond, and I still remember in vivid detail the ass-whippings he delivered.