Drop and give me 227

[eMOM PAO]

Drop and give me 227
Famous leathernecks salute the Corps on its 227th birthday

Stories by Bryant JordanTimes staff writer

Hollywood loves a leatherneck.

Since the early days of Tinseltown, there have been movies made about Marines.

And for nearly as long, Marines have been drawn to the bright lights of post-Corps fame in Hollywood and beyond. Few Marines are bashful around a camera ? it?s practically in their blood to find their way into the limelight.

In celebration of the Corps? 227th birthday, Marine Corps Times asked some of those ?Hollywood Marines? to reflect on their leatherneck days. We learned they?re all still proud to claim the title ?Marine.?

Semper fi, Marines. Happy birthday.

During World War II, Glenn Ford and Tyrone Power were among the top actors who answered the call and joined the Corps. High school dropout Lee Marvin, wounded on Saipan during the war, would go on to become an Academy Award-winning actor and lifelong Corps promoter.

Other Marines who went on to make it big on stage and screen include Harvey Keitel ? who most know as ?Winston Wolf? in Quentin Tarantino?s ?Pulp Fiction? ? and Jamaican-born Orville R. Burrell, a Gulf War vet known today as the reggae singer Shaggy.

But the true nexus of Hollywood and the Corps is R. Lee Ermey, a Vietnam combat veteran who emerged larger-than-life from Stanley Kubrick?s 1987 film, ?Full Metal Jacket,? in which he played the profane, violent and hard-core drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Hartman.

Today, Ermey is more popular than ever, and not only among Marines. But for Marines he?s special, a living legend ? as evidenced by the hundreds who lined up to meet him during a Sept. 19 appearance at Quantico, Va.

With his campaign cover set squarely on his head, the brim seemingly resting on bushy eyebrows that jutted out like matching cliff ledges, Ermey was in his element, signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans.

?After all these years it?s gotten to be tremendous fun to be me,? he said in one of several recent telephone interviews with Marine Corps Times.

He has acted in dozens of films, been reproduced as a ?motivational figure? (picture ?G.I. Joe? with voice and attitude) and become host of the successful series ?Mail Call? on The History Channel. And just this month, Ermey was presented the first-ever Lee Marvin Actor?s Award from the World War II Veterans Committee in Washington, D.C.

Ermey is rare, if not unique, in Hollywood: a celebrity who is also a military icon.

Ermey, 58, credits the Corps for his success and he tries to give something back ? whether it?s helping out with the annual Toys for Tots campaign, working with recruiters or motivating Marines through personal appearances.

?I?ve been paying back the Marine Corps for a long time,? Ermey said. ?I don?t consider myself retired. I don?t think I ever will. I consider myself a representative for the Marine Corps in Hollywood. If I screw up, it is a direct reflection on the Marine Corps.?

It may seem surprising to some that Ermey?s portrayal of the vulgar and volatile Gunny Hartman was so well-received by Marines ? especially coming out of a movie that delivered an anti-war message ? but not to Ermey.

?Ever since we did the movie, I?ve never had anybody who didn?t respect that drill instructor,? Ermey said. ?That DI was a combination of me when I was a drill instructor for India Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion at San Diego ? plus some traits ? admirable traits ? from other DIs I?d known all through the years.

?I came out with Gunnery Sgt. Hartman and he could be nothing but utterly respectable ? maybe a little crazy and colorful and a little bit off the wall, but that?s how he held the attention of the recruits.?

Making gunny

Ermey?s role as a Marine Corps advocate has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated.

In a May 17 ceremony at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, where he went through recruit training in 1960, the Corps gave Ermey an honorary promotion to gunnery sergeant ? the rank he held in ?Full Metal Jacket.? He was a staff sergeant when he was medically retired from the Corps in 1971 because of injuries received at Da Nang, Vietnam.

Ermey is invited every year to attend Marine Corps balls around the country to mark the Corps? establishment on Nov. 10, 1775.

This year, as the Corps celebrates it 227th birthday, Ermey will attend seven balls, his personal best so far.

?If I survive it, I may take on more next year,? Ermey said.

Also this year, a group whose members include more than just his beloved Marines recognized the Marine-turned-actor with a unique honor. The World War II Veterans Committee, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that promotes study of the war through public forums and in the media, was scheduled to present Ermey on Nov. 9 with its Lee Marvin Actor?s Award.

Dean Henney, a retired Marine captain and executive director of the committee, called Ermey ?a force of nature,? and said he was the right choice for the award.

Both Marvin and Ermey were enlisted Marines, both served in combat and both credit the Corps with their postwar successes, he said.

Marvin always acknowledged that the Marine Corps was ?what he drew on throughout his life and in his roles,? Henney said. ?We?re just delighted that R. Lee Ermey will be receiving the first Lee Marvin Actor?s Award.?

Hollywood and the Corps

Ermey may be the most conspicuous former Marine ever to light up the silver screen, but he?s not the only Marine to go Hollywood.

And like Ermey, other former Marines in Hollywood ? even those who served after making it big ? give credit to the Corps and take pride in their bond with Marines past and present.

James W. Wise Jr., a retired naval officer, profiled more than two dozen actors with Marine experience for his book, ?Stars in the Corps.?

Most served during World War II and some did so during the Korean War. In some cases, Wise wrote, these actors considered their time in the Corps to have been ?the most real experience of their professional lives.?

Among those who left Hollywood for the Corps were legendary actors Glenn Ford, Tyrone Power, Sterling Hayden, Robert Ryan and Macdonald Carey.

Others, like Marvin, became stars after their time in the Corps. Those in the ranks of Marines gone Hollywood include:

** Hugh O?Brian, long known for his television series, ?Wyatt Earp.?

** Don Adams, the shoe phone-carrying spy from television?s ?Get Smart,? who was wounded on Guadalcanal.

** Bea Arthur of ?Maude? and ?Golden Girls? fame.

** Bob Keeshan, better known as ?Captain Kangaroo? from the children?s TV show of the same name.

** Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson?s ?Tonight Show? second banana, who was a fighter pilot during World War II and the Korean War.

** Steve McQueen, who served in the years between World War II and Korea.

** Harvey Keitel, who served in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1958.

** Drew Carey, the stand-up-comic-turned-sitcom-star, who spent six years as a Marine reservist in the 1980s.

Glenn Ford, star of such films as ?The Blackboard Jungle,? ?The Man from the Alamo,? and ?The Courtship of Eddie?s Father,? served with the Corps Photographic Section at Camp Pendleton, Calif., during World War II. He enlisted Dec. 13, 1942, a day also made memorable by his announcement at his swearing-in ceremony that he and actress Eleanor Powell were to be married, said his son Peter, who is penning his father?s biography.

Ford eventually would be commissioned as a naval officer, and more than 20 years later in Vietnam, Cmdr. Glenn Ford would come under enemy fire while flying in and out of a Marine landing zone aboard a helicopter from the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima.

But it was the Corps, he said, that helped mature him.

?It made me grow up in a way,? Ford, now 86, said in a recent interview. ?You can?t explain it. I?ll always be grateful for the Marines for making a man out of me.?

Once a Marine ?

Ford?s gratitude is common among the successful actors, entertainers and celebrities who today earn bigger paychecks than they ever did as leathernecks, but still fondly recall their time as Marines. From the Marine private who rose to fame during the earliest days of television to a PFC who has found it more recently through reggae music and MTV, they say the Corps gave them the tools to make the climb.

?I celebrated my 18th birthday ? at Parris Island [in 1945]. I was young. I was impressionable. The Marine Corps did me a lot of good,? recalled Keeshan, who later, as ?Captain Kangaroo,? would teach preschoolers about positive values a generation before ?Sesame Street.? ?It taught me about completing what I started. My whole career originated in the Marine Corps. I?ll always be grateful.?

Shaggy sings the same tune. Nearly a decade after he lobbed shells at Iraqis while serving with Sierra Battery, 5th Battalion, 10th Marines, the singer now sends reggae hits and videos sailing high on the sales charts.

But it was during his Marine days that Shaggy?s music went from being a passionate hobby to a career, with the encouragement and help of other Marines. He recalled a colonel who was serving as attach? with the embassy in Jamaica who encouraged the young Marine to pursue his music career. There also was a staff sergeant at Camp Lejeune, N.C., who gave him the freedom to make regular trips to New York City to perform.

?I was just doing it as a hobby, a hobby that turned into something else,? he said. ?I did a lot of growing up in the Marines. Good times and bad, good friends and bad.?

The Corps, he said, ?makes you take stock of what you can endure. It helped me in terms of discipline. You?ve got to be on time ? things are kept neat, you?ve got to get up in the morning. Then there?s the physical part of it. I?m on stage two hours a night sometimes. I?ve got to put a lot into it.?

Dale Dye, who served as a Marine captain, has found fame in Hollywood as well, largely behind the cameras. Though he?s had small parts in movies throughout the years, he largely works as a technical adviser.

In an Oct. 26 e-mail from Australia, where he was working on ?The Great Raid,? a World War II film, Dye said he remains ?as solidly and firmly connected to the Corps these days as I was on active duty. In fact, if it wasn?t for the things the Corps instilled in me, I sure as hell wouldn?t be doing what I am in show business today.?

Dye, like Ermey, attends Marine Corps birthday celebrations whenever possible, or tries to find other Marines wherever he may be in order to celebrate Nov. 10.

?If I?m really remote on some location, I just pull together the Marines who work for me and we have our own birthday ball,? he said. ?This year I'll probably be in Shanghai, China.?

Keitel, in an Oct. 25 telephone interview from New York, said ?the bond between Marines is one that is never broken. I?ve not found one instance since I was discharged from the Marine Corps in 1959 until now when I met a former Marine that we both didn?t feel a sense of brotherhood.?

Keitel, now on the big screen in ?Red Dragon,? was a corporal in 1958, serving as a rifleman and fire-team leader on a peacekeeping mission to Beirut, first with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, then with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. Like other stars, he gives the Corps its due for his success, but with some humor.

?I always like to thank the Corps for my career, because there is a Marine adage that goes like this: ?Wherever there is a camera, you?ll find a Marine.? So it was second nature to seek out a camera.?

People who believe that actors and stars ?are the biggest hams around,? Keitel said, have never met a Marine.

One tough ham

The question put to Ermey was simple: When you think of movies, who in Hollywood has best presented the image of the Marine?

?Me,? Ermey said without missing a beat ? a quick response that seems to give credence to Keitel?s opinion about the Marine-camera love affair.

During his visit to Quantico, Ermey jumped to his feet with a glare spreading across his face, locked his hands around the throat of a Marine ? and posed for the photo the fan requested, one recalling Ermey?s ?Gunny Hartman? character. A moment later, Ermey was his usual smiling self, signing autographs and posing for more candid shots.

Ermey is all Marine, but he is an actor too, slipping right into character at a moment?s notice.

At the same time, he is serious about his image, which is so closely tied to his beloved Corps.

Officials at The History Channel learned just how serious in October, when he flew to New York to discuss how they were writing for his ?Mail Call? character.

?The character on ?Mail Call,? they don?t know how to promote or deal with him,? Ermey said. ?There?s no other character like that in Hollywood.? The writers were drafting scripts for Ermey as if he were Don Rickles, the longtime actor and comedian who bases his routine largely on verbal abuse. But Ermey said Rickles is ?not representative of the gunny at all.?

Rather, ?he?s a grouchy old Marine Corps gunny, but lovable. And Don Rickles is just insulting and rude, but that?s the closest thing they had to compare him with. I told them if they want Don Rickles to do their ? show, then get Don Rickles.?

The result of Ermey?s discussion: He now gets to craft his character.

?I approve everything now,? he said. ?They send me the script and I rewrite it.?

Makes you wonder if Ermey dropped the execs for push-ups.