Which actor played Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket?

R. Lee Ermey played Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Hartman is the abusive senior drill instructor responsible for training Marine recruits at Parris Island during the film’s first section.

Ermey had served as a United States Marine and worked as a technical adviser on the production. Kubrick was impressed by Ermey’s presence and improvisational ability, and Ermey ultimately received permission to contribute much of Hartman’s relentless drill-instructor dialogue. The role became his signature screen performance.

The film divides its story between boot camp and the Vietnam War. Vincent D’Onofrio plays the troubled recruit Leonard “Gomer Pyle” Lawrence, while Matthew Modine plays Private Joker. Hartman’s methods contribute to the brutal transformation of the recruits, but the film also examines military training, dehumanization, and the way war shapes identity.