(The Daily Mail) – R Lee Ermey, who played the iconic drill sergeant in ‘Full Metal Jacket,’ claims he was fired by Geico for his vocal opposition to the Obama Administration.
‘Gunny,’ a retired US Marine, starred in a single commercial for the insurance company in 2010 in which he hilariously demonstrated why a former drill instructor makes a terrible psychiatrist.
Not long after the ad debuted, he was forced to apologize after saying President Barack Obama was bringing America to it’s knees and ‘imposing socialism’ during a Toys 4 Tots fundraiser that was broadcast live in the Chicago area.
‘Yeah, I got fired… Geico fired me because I wasn’t too kind about speaking about the present administration,’ Ermey told TMZ.
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He said it’s part of a bigger problem in Hollywood.
‘If you’re a conservative in this town, you better watch out,’ he warned.
Ermey, who was a Marine drill instructor and served in the Vietnam War, has made an acting career out of playing hardened, angry military commanders.
His best-known role, though, is Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, the brutal Marine trainer, in the 1987 film ‘Full Metal Jacket.’
‘The economy really sucks. Now I hate to point fingers at anybody, but the present administration probably had a lot to do with that. And the way I see it, they’re not going to quit doing it until they bring this country to its knees,’ he told the crowd.
‘So I think we should all rise up and we should stop this administration from what they’re doing because they’re destroying this country. They’re driving us into bankruptcy so that they can impose socialism on us and that’s exactly what they’re doing.’
He later said he was sorry for being ‘inappropriately critical’ of the president.
