Starting his movie career as a technical consultant for " Apocalypse Now," Ermey played a diverse group of authority figures along the way, the most famous earning him a Golden Globe nomination as Sergeant Hartman in "Full Metal Jacket." He was the only actor that director Stanley Kubrick allowed to ad lib. On television, Ermey was the father of Hugh Laurie's title character on "House," a former military fighter pilot that Laurie's pilled-out character could never quite live up to. He was the vengeful father of a murder victim in " Dead Man Walking," making a convincing case for the death penalty in a movie that otherwise advocated against it. He was the lead plastic Army soldier 'Sarge' in Pixar's " Toy Story" franchise, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman's exasperated superior in "Se7en," and a sadistic sheriff in the 2006 "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remake.
He was one of the few representatives from the military in Hollywood, a trend that's changing with the success of Adam Driver and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," which used British soldiers in many scenes to give authenticity. Lee Ermey had presence, and he could play it in different ways, in dramatically different figures of authority, even though it was a variation of that same Marine Drill Sergeant's yell that made him an instant star in " Full Metal Jacket."Įrmey's death on April 15, 2018, due to pneumonia complications, came as a sudden tragedy for his many fans. Acting is easy, as James Spader once said, but presence is not.
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