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R. Lee Ermey death: Full Metal Jacket actor who played foul-mouthed drill sergeant dies aged 74

The US actor was best known for playing Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket,": AP
The US actor was best known for playing Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket,": AP

R. Lee Ermey, the actor best known for playing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket, has died at the age of 74.

His manager said he died on Sunday morning from "complications of pneumonia".

"He will be greatly missed by all of us," a statement read. "Semper Fi, Gunny. Godspeed."

The former marine turned actor was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his memorable performance in Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, in which he immortalised lines such as: "What is your major malfunction?"

Born 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.

Marine to actor: R. Lee Ermey spent 14 months in Vietnam before becoming an actor (AP)
Marine to actor: R. Lee Ermey spent 14 months in Vietnam before becoming an actor (AP)

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.

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.

The part he would become most well-known for, in Full Metal Jacket, was not originally his. Ermey had been brought on as a technical consultant for the 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. An impressed Kubrick gave him the role.

R. Lee Ermey speaks to president George W. Bush in 2005 (REUTERS)
R. Lee Ermey speaks to president George W. Bush in 2005 (REUTERS)

Kubrick told Rolling Stone that 50 per cent of Ermey's dialogue in the film was his own.

"In the course of hiring the marine recruits, we interviewed hundreds of guys," he said.

"We lined them all up and did an improvisation of the first meeting with the drill instructor. They didn't know what he was going to say, and we could see how they reacted. Lee came up with, I don't know, 150 pages of insults."

Ermey would also go on to voice the little green army man Sarge in the Toy Story films. He also played track and field coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman in Prefontaine, General Kramer in Toy Soldiers and Mayor Tilman in Mississippi Burning.

Ermey also hosted the History Channel series Mail Call and Lock N' Load with R Lee Ermey.

"He will be greatly missed by all of us," said his manager Bill Rogin. "It is a terrible loss that nobody was prepared for."