Definitely a victim of type-casting. But he made a pretty good living playing a stock character he knew inside and out from personal experience. Full Metal Jacket is essentially two films because he so dominates the first half of it. Often imitated but never duplicated. And celebrated by millions.
Yep. Up until Full Metal Jacket Jack Webb was what people thought a DI was like. He showed the world a REAL DI.
He played the town mayor in Mississippi Burning.
But overlooked are his roles as the victim's father in "Dead Man Walking" or the judge in "Murder in the First". He got cast as the military hard-ass a lot but he proved he was capable of a lot more.
Bears repeating.
He made that film the cult classic it is today.
What’s funny is that Lee Ermey hadn’t even been hired to play the role of Gunny Sgt. Hartman.
For one thing he wasn’t an actor... he had been hired as a consultant to teach a real actor how to be a DI... which resulted in a videotape of Ermey shouting obscene insults non-stop for 15 minutes.. Kubrick saw that and hired Ermey instead.
There’s also the rumor that Ermey had asked for the role and Kubrick said no- at which point Ermey barked “Stand up when you’re spoken to!” and Kubrick instinctively obeyed. And that got him the role.