R. Lee Ermey Had ZERO Respect For These 7 Hollywood “Military Men”

Silver hair, a growl that carried across a parade deck, and a question he asked movie stars in the same flat voice he used for the weather: who did you serve with, and when, and what actually happened. By his own count, not four men in the entire industry could answer it straight. He had the standing to ask. Ermey enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17 out of Emporia, Kansas, made drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, shipped to Vietnam in 1968 with Marine Wing Support Group 17 out of Da Nang, and was medically discharged in 1972 as a staff sergeant, not yet 30. Lee Marvin set the bar he measured everyone against. In 1944, Marvin took machine gun fire on Mount Tapochau on Saipan, a bullet through the sciatic nerve, more than a year learning to walk again in Navy hospitals, a Purple Heart, and one line he never changed for the rest of his life: the real heroes never came home. At Arlington his stone is the same plain white marker as the privates in the rows around him. The records that failed the question were shorter than the reputations built on them. John Wayne's draft board stamped him 4-F through the whole war. Gary Cooper was too old, Errol Flynn was turned down over his heart and lungs. Brian Dennehy served four years in the Corps and never left the country, while a Vietnam story traveled ahead of him. Audie Murphy climbed onto a burning tank destroyer outside Holtzwihr at 20 and earned the Medal of Honor. Jimmy Stewart flew 20 missions over Germany and retired a brigadier general. Charles Durning waded in at Omaha Beach. In 1987 Kubrick hired Ermey to drill the cast of Full Metal Jacket, asked for a taped drill routine, and watched him go 20 minutes with no script before handing him the part. Vincent D'Onofrio gained 70 lbs to play Private Pyle. The film cost $30 million and drew around $120 million worldwide. The Corps pinned him as an honorary gunnery sergeant in 2002, and he died on April 15, 2018, at 74.