R. Lee Ermey. (Dave Workman photo)
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
They used to line up for more than an hour at the annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show and National Rifle Association exhibits for a chance to shake hands with “The Gunny,” actor and retired U.S. Marine sergeant R. Lee Ermey, but the commanding voice of the former drill instructor has been stilled.
Ermey passed away April 15 due to complications from pneumonia, according to an announcement from his longtime manager, Bill Rogin. Ermey was 74.
“It is with deep sadness that I regret to inform you all that R. Lee Ermey (‘The Gunny’) passed away this morning from complications of pneumonia,” Rogin posted on Facebook. “He will be greatly missed by all of us. It is a terrible loss that nobody was prepared for. He has meant so much to so many people. And, it is extremely difficult to truly quantify all of the great things this man has selflessly done for, and on behalf of, our many men and women in uniform. He has also contributed many iconic and indelible characters on film that will live on forever. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman of Full Metal Jacket fame was a hard and principled man. The real R. Lee Ermey was a family man, and a kind and gentle soul. He was generous to everyone around him. And, he especially cared deeply for others in need.
“There is a quote made famous in Full Metal Jacket,” Rogin’s note continued. “It’s actually the Riflemen’s Creed. ‘This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.’
“There are many Gunny’s, but this one was OURS. And, we will honor his memory with hope and kindness. Please support your men and women in uniform. That’s what he wanted most of all.
“Semper Fi, Gunny. Godspeed.”
At the time of his death, Ermey was a member of the NRA Board of Directors, having first been elected in 2011. He once told this reporter that he made it to board meetings because he felt a responsibility to be there, having run for a position and being elected. He made most of them, too, over the past eight years.
Born in Emporia, Kansas in 1944, Ermey joined the Marine Corps after getting in trouble with authorities in Yakima County, where the family moved when he was 14.
He entered the Corps in 1961 and eventually became a drill instructor, rising to the rank of staff sergeant. He served in San Diego and at Okinawa. He was medically discharged after 11 years in the Corps. He did not talk about the war, a fact noted by the New York Times.
Ermey appeared in The Boys in Company C, in which he portrayed a drill instructor, and briefly as a helicopter pilot in Apocalypse Now. But it was his role as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 hit Full Metal Jacket that brought Ermey into the spotlight. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for supporting actor in the Hartman role. That film has become a cult classic, and it has been repeatedly noted that he essentially created many of his lines.
Ermey was no faker when it came to firearms. One his programs “Mail Call” and later “Lock n’ Load with R. Lee Ermey” and “Gunny Time.” Once, five years ago while attending the SHOT Show’s “Day at the Range” where he appeared on behalf of Glock, we caught up with him at another company’s shooting bay, where he was standing next to a large propane heater with a couple of other people because it was bitterly cold. At the time he observed that, as cold as it was on the range that day, it would have made sense to have “a (expletive) heater” in every exhibit.
Ermey appeared in dozens of films, typically playing authority figures. He was also a spokesman for Glock and several other companies during his career.
Off camera, he is known to have devoted much energy to veterans’ causes, and he was a solid family man.
