Yes. The picture is of a Designated Writer and R. Lee Ermey, who passed away this weekend, most unfortunately, of complications from pneumonia at age 74.
He came to be known as “Gunny” because he was best known for his role as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in the 1987 film “Full Metal Jacket,” for which he received a Golden Globe nomination For Best Supporting Actor. He should have won.
Later he appeared on a couple of HBO shows and did some voice work, but his work as “Gunny” was where he really lit it up.
He was a real Marine who served in the Vietnam War. I love him. Here is what he told the Department of Defense in a video years back.
“I accepted the job as technical advisor (for “Full Metal Jacket”) simply to get my foot in the door so that I could score the role of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman. They had already hired another actor to play Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, but Marines don’t just say ‘Oh’ and give up. We continue to march and we attack until we achieve our goal and we accomplish our mission.”
A bunch of extras were lined up as privates one morning before the movie began filming. He was to be the drill sergeant welcoming them to camp. He had director Stanley Kubrick’s right-hand guy film him “talking” to the privates. After Kubrick saw that, he asked him to play the role instead of the guy who had already been hired.
If you watch the movie, you will understand that Kubrick made the right choice.
The language is dicey, so be prepared. Language has never bothered me. It definitely does not bother the Marines. It is authentic to the situation.
I met him two years ago when Louisiana Tech beat Navy in the Lockeed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, December 2016, in Fort Worth. I was and still am doing a poor job of doing color for the Louisiana Tech broadcasts, sweeping up after Louisiana Tech Hall of Fame play-by-play man Dave Nitz. A few minutes before that particular bowl game, one of my bosses — everyone is my boss it seems — told me I would interview R. Lee Ermey at some point. He was just going to drop by the booth.
“Who is R. Lee…what?”
Then the boss said, “He’s Gunny from ‘Full Metal Jacket.’”
WHOA!
He came by at some point during the second quarter. Dave had no idea who he was because Dave has seen three movies during his life: “Goldfinger,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and “Urban Cowboy.” So I was on my own.
“Full Metal Jacket” is horrifying and brutal, but you should probably see it. It will make your Gratitude Scale move up a few notches. Anyway, if you have not seen it, this next part will make no sense, but I tried really hard to get Ermey to ask me what my “major malfunction” was and why he wanted me to get down off his “*&%$)* obstacle.”
He would not bite. He was entirely gracious to us, to the bowl, and to the Armed Forces, which is all he wanted to talk about. He wouldn’t and didn’t morph into Gunny because, I suspect, “Full Metal Jacket” is a movie and because “real life” is what he did in Vietnam and why he went overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan to be with soldiers once he became famous.
He was, and always will be, a Marine.
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