Full Metal Jacket - Cast

Cast

• Matthew Modine as Private/Corporal/Sergeant James T. "Joker" Davis. The narrator who claims to have joined the U.S. Marine Corps to see combat, and later becomes an independent-minded combat correspondent. Joker wears a peace-sign medallion on his uniform as well as writing "Born to Kill" on his helmet, which he explains as an expression of Jungian philosophy concerning the duality of man.
• Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence. An overweight, clumsy, slow-witted recruit who becomes the focus of Hartman's attention for his incompetence and excess weight. D'Onofrio was required to gain weight for the role and added 70 lb (32 kg) to his frame, for a total weight of 280 lb (130 kg). This weight gain broke the record for the largest weight gained for a role set by Robert De Niro for Raging Bull (1980), a record D'Onofrio still holds. It took him nine months to shed the excess weight.
• R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The Parris Island drill instructor who trains his recruits to transform them into Marines. R. Lee Ermey actually served as a U.S. Marine drill instructor during the Vietnam War. Based on this experience, he ad libbed much of his dialogue in the film.
• Arliss Howard as Private/Sergeant Robert "Cowboy" Evans. A Texan who attends boot camp with Joker and Pyle. He becomes a rifleman and later encounters Joker in Vietnam, where Cowboy takes command of a rifle squad.
• Adam Baldwin as Sergeant "Animal Mother". the nihilistic M60 machine gunner of the Lusthog Squad. His helmet bears the inscription: "I Am Become Death", a quotation from the Bhagavad Gita.
• Dorian Harewood as Corporal "Eightball". An African-American member of the Lusthog Squad, insensitive about his ethnicity (e.g. "Put a nigger behind the trigger"), and Animal Mother's closest friend.
• Kevyn Major Howard as Private First Class "Rafter Man". Rafter Man works as a combat photographer in the Stars and Stripes office with Joker.
• Ed O'Ross as Lieutenant Walter J. "Touchdown" Schinowski. The commander of the Lusthog Squad's platoon.
• John Terry as Lieutenant Lockhart: The PAO Officer in Charge and Joker's assignment editor.
• Kieron Jecchinis as Sergeant "Crazy Earl": The squad leader, he is forced to assume platoon command when Platoon Commander 2LT Walter J. Schinowski is killed. As in the novel he carries a BB gun, which is visible just before he dies.
• John Stafford as Doc Jay: A U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman attached to the Lusthog squad.
• Tim Colceri as the door gunner of the helicopter transporting Joker and Rafter Man to the Tet Offensive front. He was initially cast to play the role of "Gunnery Sergeant Hartman", which ultimately went to R. Lee Ermey. Inflight, he shoots at civilians, while enthusiastically repeating "Get some!", boasting "157 dead Gooks killed, and 50 water buffaloes too." When Joker asks if that includes women and children, he admits it stating, "Sometimes." Joker then asks, "How could you shoot women and children?" to which the door gunner replies jokingly, "Easy, you just don't lead 'em so much!...Ha, ha, ha, ha...Ain't war hell?!" This scene is adapted from Michael Herr's 1977 book Dispatches.
• Papillon Soo Soo as Da Nang Hooker. An attractive and scantily dressed prostitute. She is memorable for the phrases, "Me love you long time", "Me so horny", and "Me sucky sucky".
• Peter Edmund as Private "Snowball" Brown, an African-American recruit, the butt of Hartman's racial jibes.