10 More War Movie Actors Who Were Actually There
2. R. Lee Ermey - Full Metal Jacket
Throughout his career, director Stanley Kubrick worked with some of the most esteemed talents in film history, including the likes of Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas and Jack Nicholson, to name but a few. It is a testament, then, that Marine Corps drill instructor R. Lee Ermey held his own against them all in 1987's Full Metal Jacket, a film he initially wasn't even meant to star in.
Kubrick's scathing yet farcical Vietnam War drama delved into the psychological impact of the conflict, not just in the waging of war but also in the process of training men to become killers, reckoning with the destruction of someone's humanity that can come from mentally preparing to do the unthinkable. The first half of the film focuses on fresh-faced Marine recruits going through the rigours of boot camp, while the second takes place in Vietnam, all working towards the same deadly punchline.
Before entering cinema legend as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the film, R. Lee Ermey had been with the marines in Vietnam, serving first as a drill instructor in San Diego before he was deployed to South Vietnam in 1968, where he stayed for just over a year. After being medically discharged in 1972, Ermey would embark on a path towards the silver screen, working as a technical advisor on multiple war movie productions, and then as an actor, with Full Metal Jacket being his defining role.
Ermey wasn't initially considered for the part, but convinced Kubrick with some improvisational routines that went on to form the bulk of the insults Hartman hurls at his recruits in the film. The ensuing exchanges went on to become some of the most fearsome and haunting in the genre, as Hartman devotes the full extent of his abilities to shaping Vincent D'Onofrio's Private Pyle into a natural born killer.