WAS R LEE ERMEY IN VIETNAM FULL

The remainder of his service was on Okinawa, where he was advanced to Staff Sergeant (E-6). In 1968, he was ordered to South Vietnam with MWSG-17, and spent 14 months in-country.

WAS R LEE ERMEY IN VIETNAM FULL

The part he would become most well-known for, in Full Metal Jacket, wasn't even originally his.Įrmey had been brought on as a technical consultant for the 1987 film, but he had his eyes on the role of the brutal gunnery sergeant and filmed his own audition tape of him yelling out insults while tennis balls flew at him. Military career Ermey then served in Marine Wing Support Group 17 at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa, Japan. He raked in more than 60 credits in film and television across his long career in the industry, often playing authority figures in everything from Se7en to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. His first film credit was as a helicopter pilot in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, which was quickly followed by a part in The Boys in Company C as a drill instructor. Lee Ermey, the veteran character actor and former Marine best known for portraying the worlds scariest drill instructor in Stanley Kubricks famed 1987 Vietnam.

The knowledge of him passing brings back wonderful memories of our time together.'īorn Ronald Lee Ermey in 1944, Ermey served 11 years in the Marine Corps and spent 14 months in Vietnam and then in Okinawa, Japan, where he became staff sergeant.

Joker.'ĭ'Onofrio added: 'Ermey was the real deal. When it comes to pop-culture allure and romanticized brutality, Stanley Kubricks Full Metal Jacket is arguably the most influential of all Vietnam War movies. Rage, rage against the dying of the light,' Modine wrote, quoting the Dylan Thomas poem. Ermey, who served in Vietnam, is best remembered as the foul-mouthed drill sergeant in Kubrick’s 1987 film, who tried to turn maggot recruits like Joker.

Was r lee ermey in vietnam