robert downey jr short biography

Robert Downey Jr.

Actor Robert Downey Jr. is known for roles in a wide variety of movies, including Iron Man , The Avengers , and Sherlock Holmes. He won an Academy Award for the 2023 biopic Oppenheimer .

1965-present

Latest news: Robert Downey Jr. Wins Best Supporting Actor Oscar

Iron Man is officially an Oscar winner.

The 58-year-old vacillated between earnestness and self-deprecating humor throughout his acceptance speech. “I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy—in that order,” he started off. Later, he took a frank turn: “Here’s my little secret: I needed this job more than it needed me.”

Downey swept the this year’s awards season. He won at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Similarly, Oppenheimer enjoyed a successful run and entered the 2024 Oscars as the most nominated movie .

Quick Facts

Early movies and snl, movies of critical acclaim, substance abuse problems, move to television with ally mcbeal, box office hits, awards for oppenheimer, wife and children, path to sobriety, who is robert downey jr..

Actor Robert Downey Jr. is best known for his portrayal of Tony Stark, a.k.a superhero Iron Man, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film franchise and roles in movies like Chaplin , Tropic Thunder . Downey made his first movie appearances and was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in the 1980s, but his growing success was marred by years of struggles with drug abuse. Eventually turning his life around, he earned a resurgence of critical and widespread acclaim and is now considered one of Hollywood’s A-list actors. Downey most recently gave an Oscar-winning performance as Lewis Strauss in the 2023 biopic Oppenheimer .

FULL NAME: Robert John Downey Jr. BORN: April 4, 1965 BIRTHPLACE: New York City SPOUSES: Deborah Falconer (1992-2004) and Susan Levin (2005-present) CHILDREN: Indio, Exton, and Avri ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries

Famed actor Robert Downey Jr. was born on April 4, 1965, in New York City, the son of the avant-garde filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., best known for the 1969 film Putney Swope . Downey began acting as a young child. His mother, Elsie, was an actress who instilled in her son a love of performing. Raised in Greenwich Village with his older sister, Alison, Downey made his film debut playing a puppy in his father’s film Pound (1970), in which actors played dogs. He would go on to have small parts in several more of his father’s films.

Downey’s parents divorced when he was 13, and the young actor ended up living in Los Angeles with his father. At 16, however, he dropped out of high school and was on the move again, relocating to New York to live with his mother.

Downey made his earliest feature film appearances in such films as Baby, It’s You (1983), Firstborn (1984), Weird Science (1985) and Back to School (1986). From 1985 to ’86, he was a regular cast member of Saturday Night Live , NBC’s popular sketch-comedy program.

The Pick-up Artist and Less Than Zero

Downey’s first leading role on the big screen was as a charming womanizer in The Pick-up Artist (1987), a romantic comedy co-starring Molly Ringwald written and directed by James Toback. His breakthrough performance came in 1987 with Less Than Zero (1987), where he co-starred with Andrew McCarthy. Downey played the party-loving, cocaine-addicted Julian Wells in the film.

By the early 1990s, Downey had established a reputation as a critically acclaimed A-List actor. He earned praise for his comic turn as a shifty soap opera producer in Soapdish (1991), co-starring Sally Field , Kevin Kline, and Whoopi Goldberg . More adoration followed when Downey landed a featured role in Short Cuts (1993), the critically lauded ensemble film by Robert Altman.

A particular high point in Downey’s career came in 1993 when he was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Actor) for his performance in Chaplin (1992), directed by Richard Attenborough. In the highly acclaimed film, which didn’t go over nearly as well with audiences as with critics, Downey nimbly portrayed the legendary Charlie Chaplin from ages 19 to 83. The role displayed his dramatic range and his considerable talent for physical comedy. By this time, the 27-year-old Downey had come to be seen as one of the most gifted actors of his generation, but he had also earned a reputation as a troubled and controversial figure in Hollywood.

Natural Born Killers and Richard III

In the wake of his critical success with Chaplin , Downey anchored a documentary about the 1992 presidential election, The Last Party . In 1994, he appeared in the romantic comedy Only You , and in Oliver Stone ’s acclaimed but controversial Natural Born Killers . The following year, the actor starred in the period film Restoration alongside Meg Ryan and Sam Neill; an updated film version of Richard III , co-starring Ian McKellen and Annette Bening ; and the Jodie Foster -directed Home for the Holidays , also starring Holly Hunter.

While Downey’s acting prospects appeared on track, his personal life would be in turmoil for the next few years. Downey was introduced to drugs at the age of 8 by his father and developed a full-fledged addiction as he headed into his 20s.

“Until ( Less Than Zero ), I took my drugs after work and on the weekends,” he later explained. “Maybe I’d turn up hungover on the set, but no more so than the stuntman. That changed on Less Than Zero ... The character was an exaggeration of myself. Then things changed, and, in some ways, I became an exaggeration of the character. That lasted far longer than it needed to last.”

A stint in drug rehabilitation followed shortly afterward, but Downey’s struggles with drugs and alcohol would persist for years. In June 1996, the actor was stopped by police after driving naked in his Porsche on Sunset Boulevard and found not only to be without clothes but in possession of cocaine, heroin, and a .357 Magnum. Less than a month later, and just a few hours before he was slated to be charged, Downey ran afoul of the law again after he was found passed out in a neighbor's house.

For the next several years, Downey’s life was a haze of headline-generating, dependency-induced mistakes and their consequences. There was a 12-month stay in prison and another visit to drug rehab. In November 2000, Downey was again arrested, this time in a Palm Springs hotel room, where he was discovered with cocaine and in a Wonder Woman costume. He was charged with felony drug possession.

Downey’s trial, initially set for late January, was delayed for several months while his lawyers negotiated with prosecutors. In March 2001, the two sides failed to reach a plea bargain, and the case was set for a preliminary hearing at the end of April. On April 24, 2001, Downey was arrested for allegedly being under the influence of an undisclosed “stimulant.”

Despite his turmoil in the early 2000s, Downey continued working. He gave a memorable performance in Wonder Boys (2000) and had roles in several other films, including Auto Motives and Lethargy . Additionally, Downey moved to the small screen in 2000, becoming a regular cast member of the popular show Ally McBeal , starring Calista Flockhart. Downey once again reminded fans and critics of his talent, likability, and versatility with this new role. He went on to pick up a 2001 Golden Globe Award and won a Screen Actors Guild Award soon after.

But Downey’s increasingly complicated personal life pressed his employer's patience. After that second arrest in April 2001, Downey's tenure on Ally McBeal ended; producers had decided to wrap production of the final episodes of the season without the actor. Around this same time, lawyers reached an agreement with prosecutors that required Downey to plead no contest to cocaine-related charges. He was sentenced to three years’ probation—a ruling that allowed him to continue live-in drug treatment instead of returning to prison.

Working his way back to prominence, Downey in 2003 starred opposite Halle Berry in Gothika , which fared better at the box office than it did with the critics. He continued to dedicate himself to his craft, playing a supporting role in the critically acclaimed Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) and the lead in the independent drama A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006), which he also co-produced. In Zodiac (2007), Downey plays a journalist who gets wrapped up in the hunt for the infamous Zodiac Killer.

Tropic Thunder

Taking a huge risk, Downey starred in the comedy Tropic Thunder (2008) with Ben Stiller and Jack Black ; he played a white actor pretending to be a Black actor in this war movie spoof. His efforts received primarily positive reviews, with Variety magazine’s Todd McCarthy stating that “the audacity of Downey’s performance” was one of “the best reasons to see the film.” Downey garnered numerous accolades for his performance in Tropic Thunder , including Oscar (Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role), Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture), and Screen Actors Guild (Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role) nominations.

Iron Man and The Avengers Franchise

That same year, Downey established himself as a box office star by playing wealthy industrialist-turned-crime fighter Tony Stark in the smash hit Iron Man , based on the Marvel Comics superhero. The film grossed more than $318 million domestically, leading to the release of sequels in 2010 and 2013.

Stark would also become one of the central characters in the series of Marvel Cinematic Universe films that followed, headlined by The Avengers in 2012 and its three sequels later in the decade. The movies featured a bevy of Hollywood talent as iconic Marvel heroes, including Chris Evans (Captain America), Don Cheadle (Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Samuel Jackson (Nick Fury) and Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), among others.

Downey would reprise his Stark/Iron Man dual role for Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015); Captain America: Civil War (2016); Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017); Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

The Soloist and Sherlock Holmes

Downey went on to share top billing with Jamie Foxx in The Soloist (2009), which tells the story of the friendship between a Los Angeles journalist (Downey) and a homeless Juilliard-trained musician (Foxx). The film registered a respectable showing at the box office and earned praise from critics, who lauded Downey and Foxx for their performances.

Demonstrating he isn’t afraid of blockbusters (or English accents), Downey co-starred in the Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock Holmes in 2009 alongside Jude Law as Dr. John Watson. The duo teamed up again for the 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows .

Downey also offered a turn as sharp city lawyer Hank Palmer, opposite Robert Duvall, in the drama The Judge (2014).

After a half-decade of appearing solely in Marvel-branded features, Downey reemerged as host of the YouTube series The Age of AI beginning in late 2019. In January 2020, he starred as a veterinarian who talks to animals in Dolittle , based on the classic children’s book series by British author Hugh Lofting.

Downey took a short hiatus from the big screen following Dolittle and focused on his work as a producer. In 2022, he appeared in and served as an executive producer for Sr. , a documentary film about the life and career of his father.

However, Downey Jr. would draw critical acclaim for his next big performance in 2023, portraying Lewis Strauss in the blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan . Although Nolan had not worked closely with the actor in the past, he contacted Downey directly regarding the role and invited him to read the screenplay for the movie—about American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb. “I felt like (Downey) just was in a place where he would be ready to come and try something completely different. And as a director, if you can convince one of the great actors of his generation to come and challenge himself in a completely different way, you just know you’re going to get something special,” Nolan told Vanity Fair .

Oppenheimer , also starring Cillian Murphy , Emily Blunt , Florence Pugh , and Matt Damon , became the third-highest-grossing movie of the year globally and was universally praised. In 2024, Downey won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor along with comparable awards at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Critics’ Choice Awards, and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

In contrast to his prior history with the law, Downey has a much more stable home life these days. He met producer Susan Levin on the set of Gothika in 2003, and the two were engaged in November of that year. They married in August 2005 and have two children: son Exton, born in February 2012, and daughter Avri, born in November 2014.

In June 2010, Downey and Levin began their Team Downey production company, producing films and TV shows such as The Judge (2014), Dolittle (2020), and the Netflix fantasy series Sweet Tooth . “We don’t like going too long without having an extremely difficult project together, whether it’s a movie or a kid,” Downey said jokingly in 2020.

Downey also has his eldest son, Indio (born September 1993), from his prior relationship with singer and actor Deborah Falconer, whom he married in 1992. The couple separated in 1996 and finalized their divorce in 2004.

Downey’s friend and fellow actor Anthony Michael Hall is Indio’s godfather.

Downey began to seek serious treatment for his drug addiction around 2003 and has maintained his sobriety amid his career resurgence.

One of the people to play a key role in the actor’s turnaround was Mel Gibson , with whom Downey co-starred in Air America (1990). Gibson stuck by his friend’s side, even as Downey’s life was completely unraveling. When Downey was unable to get something as routine as an insurance bond due to his past troubles with the law, Gibson found him work, casting him in the 2003 film The Singing Detective. The two actors remain close friends today.

In December 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown pardoned Downey for the 1996 drug conviction that sent him to prison for a year.

According to his IMDb profile , Downey is 5 feet, 8 inches inches tall.

According to Celebrity Net Worth , Downey’s total value is around $300 million. Much of his fortune stems from his MCU appearances as Stark. The actor made $75 million from Avengers: Endgame alone thanks to the film’s box office performance.

• I think part of my destiny has to be realizing that I’m not the poster boy for drug abuse. I’m just this guy who has a really strong sense of wanting home and wanting foundation and having not had it, I now choose to create it.
• I don’t drink these days. I am allergic to alcohol and narcotics. I break out in handcuffs.
• Until [“Less Than Zero”], I took my drugs after work and on the weekends. Maybe I'd turn up hungover on the set, but no more so than the stuntman... The character was an exaggeration of myself. Then things changed, and, in some ways, I became an exaggeration of the character. That lasted far longer than it needed to last.

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Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.

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Short Bio » Film Actor » Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. has been married twice. His first wife was Deborah Falconer . They married in 1992 and divorced in 2004 due to Robert’s drug abuse. They have a son together. He is currently married to Susan Levin and they have two children together.

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Robert Downey Jr.

IMDbPro Starmeter Top 500 67

• Contact info
• 78 wins & 152 nominations total

The Evolution of Robert Downey Jr.

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• Sherlock Holmes

• TV Mini Series
• Mexican Stranger
• Pre-production

• Lewis Strauss

• Dr. John Dolittle

• Hank Palmer

• Peter Highman
• executive producer
• In Production

• 16 episodes

• 14 episodes

• co-producer

• In-development projects at IMDbPro

Personal details

• Celewish -Robert Downey Jr's Fans and Brand Engagement Platform
• 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
• April 4 , 1965
• Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
• Spouses Susan Downey August 27, 2005 - present (2 children)
• Children Indio Falconer Downey
• Parents Robert Downey Sr.
• Allyson Downey (Sibling)
• Other works Recorded "Every Breath You Take" with Sting , and "Chances Are" with Vonda Shepard , both for the "Ally McBeal - Songs of the Heart" soundtrack.
• 2 Print Biographies
• 1 Portrayal
• 11 Interviews
• 29 Articles
• 9 Pictorials
• 140 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia During the promotion of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) , famously walked out of an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy when pressed about his "dark" past because he felt it was inappropriate that children would be watching. He told Howard Stern he would leave again if that ever happened in the future.
• Quotes I've always felt like such an outsider in this industry. Because I'm so insane, I guess.
• Trademarks Sarcastic humorous deliveries while remaining completely stonefaced
• Salaries Oppenheimer ( 2023 ) $4,000,000 + backend participation
• How old is Robert Downey Jr.?
• When was Robert Downey Jr. born?
• Where was Robert Downey Jr. born?

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‘Fifteen years of total insanity’: how Robert Downey Jr made peace with his maverick father

Robert Downey Sr put his son in wild underground movies and gave him access to drugs. So what happened when Downey Jr finally turned the cameras on his dad?

I n his father’s underground western Greaser’s Palace, a seven-year-old Robert Downey Jr plays, in his own words, “a boy who got his neck slit by God”. This, perhaps, explains a lot. Downey Jr grew up on Robert Downey Sr’s film sets in the 70s and 80s, amid what he calls “a cacophony of creativity”, at the heart of the counterculture cinema scene fuelled by “cigarettes and weed and booze”. He slept in a cot wedged against an editing desk, got taken to see X-rated films such as La Grande Bouffe at an absurdly young age, and went on a cross-country road trip as a kid where he “was in charge of the hash pipe”.

In the twilight of his father’s years, Downey Jr wanted some answers about why his father didn’t take better care of him. The resulting documentary – called Sr, with remorseless family logic – acts as part tribute, part therapy session and part last hurrah. “You,” Downey Jr tells his father, “did not give a mad fuck, did you?”

The elephant in the room of Sr is Downey’s turbulent period as a cocaine- and heroin-dependent young movie star (before he miraculously cleaned up his act to become at one point the world’s highest paid actor ), and the extent to which Downey Sr may or may not be responsible for his son’s addictions. In fact, it’s the elephant in the room until it isn’t. Fifty-five minutes into Sr, Downey Jr, who spends a good part of the film gently grilling his ailing father over Zoom, addresses it directly: “I think we would be remiss not to discuss its effect on me.” Downey Sr, in his 80s and beginning to succumb to Parkinson’s, readily admits that the time he spent in Los Angeles in the 1980s as a heavy-duty cocaine addict himself was “15 years of total fucking insanity”, but he isn’t too keen to get into it again. “Boy, I could sure love to miss that discussion,” he mutters.

But no matter: we cut to an interview clip that looks like it was shot in the 90s, in which Downey Sr takes it on the chin. “A lot of us thought it would be hypocritical to not have our kids participate in marijuana and stuff like that,” he says. “It was an idiot move on our parts to share that with our children. I’m just happy he’s here.” Downey Jr is in shot too, and frankly doesn’t look well. The interviewer asks: “Were you ever worried he wasn’t going to be here?” With forthright honesty Downey Sr replies: “Many times.”

Over 30 years later, the situation is very different. Downey Sr is no longer with us; he died during the making of the documentary . Downey Jr is secure in his position in the Hollywood firmament, and now seemingly anxious to draw attention to his father’s film-making achievements. Downey Sr carved his path in the underground in the 60s and 70s with chaotic absurdist abandon. He made extravagantly berserk films such as the aforementioned Greaser’s Palace, in which a pink-hatted Jesus surrogate parachutes into the old west; the plot-free comedy Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight; and probably his best known film, the Black-Power-meets-Madison-Ave satire Putney Swope , released in 1969. Another of Downey Sr’s films, Pound, in which human actors play dogs waiting to be put down, features Downey Jr’s very first screen performances, as a five-year-old.

Arguably Downey Sr’s biggest fan is film director Paul Thomas Anderson , who cast him in a small role as a recording studio guy in Boogie Nights, and of whom Downey Jr says, only a little sarcastically: “It’s no mystery that Paul Thomas Anderson is probably the son my dad wishes he had had.”

By the time Sr (the film) came to be, Downey Sr’s active film-making career was well in the past. His most recent credit was a 2005 documentary about Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square. But Sr shows, if nothing else, that the man had an unquenchable yen to direct, to the extent that he took the opportunity to commandeer Sr’s equipment and crew to shoot his own version of the same film. Sr’s actual director, Chris Smith, is known for filming tricksy subjects with their own agendas, in films such as Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened , about the disastrous festival, and Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond , in which Jim Carrey method acted as Andy Kaufman. Smith generously incorporated elements of “the Senior cut” into the finished film, and in fact says that letting Downey Sr run with it made sense for everyone. “Had he not started doing his own version, it would have been a nightmare. He would have been all over us. It kept me outside of the crosshairs, so to speak.”

Smith’s co-cinematographer and editor Kevin Ford set up an edit suite in Downey Sr’s front room – and as he became more unwell, his bedroom. His allusive, eccentric directing style is readily apparent in the way he outlines what sequences he wants filmed. In contrast to what Downey Jr calls the “legitimate” documentary he is making, Downey Sr appears to be creating an impressionistic memoir, threading together meaningful memories and chance, unrepeatable improvisations. So he takes the camera crew to the Greenwich Village address where the family lived in a converted loft (now demolished and replaced with a Nutella cafe), and has Downey Jr leap out from behind a tree and sing the same Schubert lieder he performed as a 15-year-old in a talent contest. He visits an alleyway near the Bowery where, back in the 6os, he paid a hobo $50 to lie down for a memorable dance scene in Putney Swope . A random guy doing pull-ups on scaffolding or a bunch of mopeds bombing down a boardwalk are just as much grist to the mill.

Smith, an otherwise fairly laconic individual, says it was inspiring to watch Downey Sr at work. “It was very inventive, it was very loose.” But he adds that there was “a different set of criteria” at play. “[Downey Sr] said we would be unsuccessful if half the audience doesn’t walk out of the film.” And Smith remembers the interview they shot with actor Alan Arkin . “At one point in the interview, Alan gets up and says, ‘I want to go grab a kumquat.’ He walks over and he grabs one and comes back. In the Senior cut, that was the only piece used from that whole interview.”

Smith evidently didn’t entirely share Downey Sr’s perspective: there’s no kumquat shot in the “legitimate” version, and quite a few of Arkin’s affectionately waspish comments are kept in. (“I don’t know how he came up with his casting ideas … it was like he went down the Bowery half the time and just picked up people who were half in the bag.”) Smith says discussions are ongoing as to whether the full Senior cut will actually see the light of day.

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In piecing together the varied strands, Smith faced a complex task: dipping in and out of the Senior cut as well as accommodating the father-son Zoom sessions, Downey Jr’s to-camera observations, archive clips of Downey Sr’s old films, and so on. “We wanted to embrace Senior’s looseness and his spirit. But also try to make something that functioned as a movie.” Smith says Downey Jr was initially very resistant to the film being about him … but then “things evolved and changed”. Partly due to the still-complex relationship between father and son, with much apparently needing to be said, and partly due to Downey Sr’s advancing Parkinson’s. “It sort of morphed into this film about fathers and sons and a meditation on life in general.”

For Downey Jr, there’s undoubtedly a therapeutic dimension to the documentary. In fact, we even listen in on a session he has with his therapist in which they discuss his father’s impending demise. For Downey Sr we can’t be so certain, but his wife, author Rosemary Rogers, says in the documentary that working on it “was energising and exciting” for him. “With Parkinson’s you lose a little bit of something every day, but he’s fully focused on the film. It’s everything for him.” Smith says Downey Jr was very trusting and, while Downey Jr and his wife, film executive Susan Downey, acted as producers on the project, he had little interference. “I took notes from them, for sure, but believe me, if there were issues I’d tell you.”

Downey Sr died in July 2021, shortly after finishing his cut. Downey Jr filmed a final interaction with him and his own son, Exton. Smith also got to incorporate a little of the informal tribute the Downey family held for the late patriarch. Downey Jr has his documentary/memorial, and Smith is grateful to have been in the right place at the right time. “I think everyone just felt happy and blessed and fortunate that we were able to preserve and capture a little bit of the life force that surrounded this person. I think that was such a gift. We were just lucky to be there at the right time.”

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The most famous biography of Robert Downey Jr. biography

Aastha Ghimire

18 june, 2021 10:17 pm.

Robert Downey Jr., full name Robert John Downey Jr., is a well-known American actor and producer born on April 4, 1965. Downey is listed among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine .

In addition, he was listed as Hollywood’s highest-paid actor by Forbes. In 1970, Robert debuted in Robert Downey Sr. ‘s film Pound at age five.

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Robert downey jr.’s early life and family.

Downey was born in New York City as a younger child. His mother, Elsie Ann, was an actress, and His father ‘Robert Downey Sr., is a filmmaker and actor.

Although Robert’s original family name was ‘Elias, ‘ his father changed their family name to enlist in the Army.

Robert and his older sister grew up in Greenwich Village. Downey’s father was a drug addict, and he allowed Robert to use marijuana at age six. His father later said that he regretted that incident.

Downey later expressed that drug use became an emotional bond between him and his dad. He further noted that When my father and I did drugs together, it was like him trying to express his love for me how he knew.

In his childhood, He had minor roles in his dad’s films. Downey made his acting debut at the age of five in the absurdist comedy Pound (1970), and at the age of seven, he appeared in the surrealist Western Greaser’s Palace.

At ten, he lived in England and studied classical ballet as part of the curriculum. In 1978, when his parents divorced, Downey moved to California with his father.

He dropped out of Santa Monica High School and moved back to New York to pursue his acting career in 1982.

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Robert Downey Jr. 2008–present: Iron Man, further success

Downey had not experienced a blockbuster film. In 2008, that changed when he started commercially prosperous films, Tropic Thunder and Iron Man.

Ben Stiller wrote for Downey’s entry in the article in the edition of The Time 100. Yes, Downey is Iron Man but is Actor Man.

In the realm where the box office is irrelevant and the king is talent, the domain is something he always ruled. So, finally, this summer, he gets his piece of cake and lets us eat him at the cinema, where his mastery is in full effect.

Downey was cast as the title character in the direction of Jon Favreau in the film Iron Man In 2007. Director Jon Favreau stated Downey was not the most prominent choice, but he knew what made the character click.

Favreau emphasized having Downey as he claimed that Downey would be Iron Man as Johnny Depp is to the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

A lead actor who would both levitate the quality of the film and enhance the public enthusiasm for it. Downey gained over 20 pounds of muscle in the role of Iron Man in five months.

In 2008, Iron Man globally released grossed over 585 million dollars worldwide. The film received many raved reviews that credited Downey’s performance.

Downey had agreed to arrive in two Iron Man sequels, as part of the Iron Man franchise, and The Avengers, featuring the superhero where Stark joins, as per the Marvel comic book series The Avengers, By October 2008.

He first reprised the role in a small exhibition as Iron Man’s decayed ego, Tony Stark, in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk, as a portion of Marvel Studios portraying the same Marvel Universe on film by providing coherence among movies.

Downey turned as Tony Stark in the two pre-planned sequels, Iron Man and Iron Man 2, released in May 2010.

Iron Man 2, the 7th highest-grossing film of 2010, grossing over $623M worldwide. Downey reprised the character of Tony Stark in The Avengers In 2012.

The film received emphatic reviews and was victorious at the box office, becoming the third highest-grossing flick of all time in the United States and globally.

Downey then played Tony Stark again in Iron Man 3, In 2013. He further played Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, Captain America: Civil War in 2016, Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017, Avengers: Infinity War in 2018, and Avengers: Endgame in 2019.

He will appear in the first episode of Loki in Robert scenes from the first Avengers and Avengers: Endgame. He also will be noticed in Black Widow in 2021 after the Civil War.

Robert Downey Jr. Relationships and family

In 1984, Downey started dating actress Sarah Jessica Parker after meeting her on the set of Firstborn. The couple later departed in 1991 due to his drug obsession. He married Deborah Falconer on May 29, an actress and singer, In 1992.

They gave birth to their first child, Indio Falconer Downey, born in September 1993. His wife left him after he got arrested for some issues. Later on, Downey and Falconer finalized their divorce on April 26, 2004.

2003 Downey convened producer Susan Levin, an Executive Vice President of Production at Joel Silver’s cinema company, Silver Pictures, set of Gothika. Afterward, Downey proposed to Susan on the night of her thirtieth birthday.

In August 2005, the couple was married at a Jewish commemoration in New York. They gave birth to their first child, a son named Exton Elias, born in February 2012. Their second, Avri Roel, was born in November 2014.

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From Troubled Beginnings to Hollywood Royalty: The Robert Downey Jr. Story!

Robert Downey Jr., born on April 4, 1965, in Manhattan, New York City, is an iconic American actor and producer. His career spans over four decades, characterized by both critical acclaim and personal challenges. Rising to prominence in the 1980s, Downey Jr. solidified his status as a Hollywood superstar with memorable roles in films like “Chaplin,” “Iron Man,” and “Sherlock Holmes.” Despite struggles with substance abuse, Downey Jr. staged a remarkable comeback, becoming one of the highest-paid actors in the industry.

Robert Downey Jr. Bio

However, his journey has also been marked by personal struggles, including substance abuse issues and legal challenges. Despite these setbacks, Downey made a triumphant comeback, earning accolades for his roles in “Iron Man” and “Sherlock Holmes.” He has been recognized as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people and has been listed as Hollywood’s highest-paid actor by Forbes. With iconic performances such as Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes, Downey continues to captivate audiences with his talent and charisma.

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Early Life of R obert Downey Jr 

Robert John Downey Jr. was born on April 4, 1965, in Manhattan, New York City, into a family deeply involved in the entertainment industry. His upbringing was characterized by constant relocation due to his father’s filmmaking career, exposing him to a diverse array of environments. However, his childhood was also marred by the presence of substance abuse, with both his parents struggling with addiction.

His early years in the industry were marked by odd jobs and minor roles, but his talent and determination propelled him forward. Despite setbacks, Downey’s journey ultimately led to significant success on both stage and screen, establishing him as one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors.

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In conclusion, Robert Downey Jr.’s life journey is a testament to resilience, talent, and determination. Despite facing numerous challenges, including a tumultuous upbringing marked by substance abuse and frequent relocations, Downey persevered and pursued his passion for acting.

His early experiences in the industry, from minor roles in his father’s films to odd jobs to support himself, laid the foundation for his eventual rise to stardom. Through it all, Downey remained dedicated to his craft, continuously honing his skills and overcoming obstacles along the way. Today, he stands as one of the most influential and beloved actors in Hollywood, admired for his versatility, charisma, and enduring contributions to cinema.

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Why Robert Downey Jr.'s 'Oppenheimer' first Oscar win is so sweet (and a long time coming)

Iron Man finally got a golden guy.

After four decades of navigating superheroic highs and career-threatening lows, Robert Downey Jr. celebrated his first Oscar win Sunday night, winning best supporting actor for Christopher Nolan’s true-life atomic bomb thriller “ Oppenheimer .”

"I'd like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order," Downey joked when he took the stage to accept his Oscar . Of "Oppenheimer," he said: "Here’s my little secret, I needed this job more than it needed me. It was fantastic and I stand here a better man because of it."

Downey added: "What we do is meaningful and the stuff we decide to make is important."

The third time was the charm for Downey, 58, previously nominated for “Chaplin” and “ Tropic Thunder. ” His victory for “Oppenheimer,” though, was fairly predictable, having run the table with wins at the Golden Globe, Critics Choice, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild awards ceremonies.

Others leaned more humble this awards season, but that’s not Downey’s style. He conquered his Academy Awards quest in his own inimitable way: “Why me? Why now? Why do things seem to be going my way?” Downey asked, playfully smirking, during his SAG acceptance speech. “Unlike my fellow nominees, I will never grow tired from the sound of my own voice.”

Oscar is a cherry on the banana split of Downey’s storied career − an extra bit of gravy on the Gen X icon’s loaded mashed potatoes. Armed with massive box-office receipts and a spate of memorable characters, he didn’t need that 8-pound trophy to make him a Hollywood legend. It is meaningful, though, because it’s another celebration for a comeback kid who once was on the brink.

Downey came up in the 1980s alongside the Brat Pack in films such as “Weird Science,” “The Pick-Up Artist,” “Less Than Zero” and “Johnny Be Good.” He cemented himself as an artiste with Richard Attenborough’s 1992 biopic “Chaplin,” channeling British-born silent-film star Charlie Chaplin and his mannerisms in a tale about how the comic actor became a global sensation and a magnet for scandal.

Then came a dark period: In the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, legal troubles and drug addiction led to jail time and the loss of jobs – Downey was even fired from “Ally McBeal,” where he’d won a Globe and earned an Emmy nod. (During his Oscar speech, Downey made sure to thank his entertainment lawyer for spending half his career "trying to get me insured and bailing me out of the hoosegow.")

Yet he turned things around. In 2008, his role in “Iron Man” sparked an epic blockbuster run where he became the face of the powerhouse Marvel Cinematic Universe; that same summer, he starred in the action comedy “Tropic Thunder,” which garnered him a supporting actor Oscar nod . His role, as an overly serious thespian in blackface , could have been wholly problematic (and would never fly today): What helped was Downey playing the character, who's mocked mercilessly by his Black co-star, as a cleverly satirical, and absolutely hilarious, send-up of his own A-list celebrity and Hollywood's casting practices.

Downey’s Oscar win is also satisfying for those fans who've appreciated his often self-deprecating wit and Marvel-ous moxie over the years – or thought he should have snagged nods for "Zodiac" and "Avengers: Endgame" – plus it's easy to root for him. He's the kind of guy who adores his family – it’s obvious by the love and care he put into the Netflix documentary about his father, “Sr.,” or the way he thanks his wife Susan in acceptance speeches. ("She found me a snarling rescue pet and you loved me back to life, that's why I'm here," Downey said to her Sunday.) He’s also the kind of guy where, when you visit his cozy corner of an “Avengers” set and unknowingly have a splotch of ink on your face, he’ll run off to get a wet washcloth and help a dude out. Like Tony Stark, always to the rescue.

But, man, he can still be one dastardly villain when the opportunity arises. His “Oppenheimer” character Lewis Strauss is central to one of the movie’s two main story lines, where the man who engineered J. Robert Oppenheimer’s political downfall gets his just due during a congressional cabinet confirmation. Downey’s portrayal shows him as petty, vindictive and nasty, not for America’s benefit or national security but because of a perceived personal slight.

It’s another feather in the cap – or high-tech helmet, as it were – for a lauded A-lister who can defeat Thanos or break bad just as easily, and is still at the top of his game. So enjoy the cherry and the gravy, RDJ. You earned it.

Robert Downey Jr - Biography

American actor robert has starred in a plethora of action films including the likes of sherlock holmes and iron man.

Who is Robert Downey Jr?

"I know very little about acting. I'm just an incredibly gifted faker," Robert Downey Jr once insisted. Whatever his method, it's served him well during a successful career which has spanned four decades and produced a Golden Globe, a SAG trophy and two Oscar nominations. Not bad for a faker.

Robert Downey Jr was born on April 4, 1965, in New York, to Robert Sr, an independent filmmaker, and Elsie, an actress. His childhood was colourful. "Dad was doing these crazy films. Mom would pick me up at school wearing this big quilted cape," he remembers. "I felt like I was in a JD Salinger story." 

Robert Sr cast his son as a puppy in his feature film The Pound, and Robert caught the acting bug. Three years after dropping out of high school aged 17 he was starring on popular US sketch comedy programme Saturday Night Live and had a string of Eighties film credits including teen comedy Weird Science and Less Than Zero, which got him noticed by film critics.

From there he progressed to bigger projects such as Air America with established stars like Mel Gibson and Soap Dish with Whoopi Goldberg. Then in 1992 his Hollywood status was confirmed when he landed his first Oscar nomination for his masterful portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin .

TV fans will be familiar with Robert for his stint as a lawyer on Ally McBeal . He was popular with viewers and TV pundits alike, garnering a SAG Award and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Calista Flockhart's on-screen love interest Larry. While he's battled substance abuse for most of his career, spending lengthy stretches in treatment and detention centres, Robert has been sober since 2003, thanks to his family, therapy, yoga, meditation and the practice of wing chun kung fu. 

He's also found support in the form of Hollywood pals including Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, with whom he bonded quickly. "In a relatively short time he was a better friend than some people I'd known for ages," says Robert. As he began to overcome his demons in the 2000s Robert came back from years in the wilderness after Mel paid the insurance bond which would allow him to star in 2003's The Singing Detective . 

This paved the way for a career comeback and a string of successful roles, including Gothika and the hugely successful action flick Iron Man in 2008. It was his comic turn in Tropic Thunder , though, which sealed his return - landing him his second Academy Award nod in 2009. 

His Dating History

On the relationship front, he lived with actress Sarah Jessica Parker for seven years in the Eighties before wedding model and aspiring singer Deborah Falconer in 1992. 

Their son Indio arrived a year later, but it was not meant to be, and they split in 1996. In 2003 Robert became engaged to Gothika producer Susan Levin , whom he met on set. The two wed in the Long Island town of Amagansett before a star-studded selection of friends and loved ones, including Keanu Reeves , Sting   and Ellen Barkin, in August 2005.

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in less than two weeks, Robert Downey Jr. is probably going to win an Academy Award. He’s already taken home the Golden Globe and the SAG Award for his portrayal of Lewis Strauss, the man who decides to get revenge on J. Robert Oppenheimer, in Christopher Nolan ’s acclaimed “ Oppenheimer ,” and there seems to be nothing standing in his way to claiming his first Oscar on March 10th. 

For anyone who has been a fan of Downey over the last several decades, his presumed win will be gratifying—a culmination of a career filled with ups and downs. But for those who remember, it may also be a surreal, poignant moment. Not that long ago, such a scene seemed impossible. It is not hyperbole to say that, at one point, many of us were scared that we’d lose one of the most talented actors of his generation. The Oscar will be deeply satisfying, but maybe not as much as the fact that, after so much struggle and scandal, Downey is in a good place. These stories tend to end in tears. His, happily, has not.

It has now been 25 years since Downey was arguably facing the darkest moment of his life. In the summer of 1999, he was sentenced to a three-year prison term, found guilty of drug and weapons possession. The actor’s addiction issues were well-documented by that point, but Downey’s attorney, Robert Shapiro , asked Judge Lawrence Mira for mercy, insisting Downey had changed. Mira was unconvinced , saying, “I don’t believe your client is committed to not using drugs. You may call that addiction. But there is some level of choice. I don’t think we have any alternative [to jail]. We have used them all.” In the courtroom, Downey described his addiction in vivid, harrowing fashion: “It’s like I’ve got a shotgun in my mouth, with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal.”

Downey ended up serving only one year, but it was easy to imagine that the worst was yet to come. Whether before or after that 1999 sentencing, Gen-Xers had gotten accustomed to their heroes dying due to their demons: River Phoenix , Kurt Cobain , Philip Seymour Hoffman . In the early ‘90s, Downey had received a Best Actor nomination for “ Chaplin ,” a star on the rise, but the second half of that decade was littered with arrests and incidents—the kinds of things that make an actor seem like an out-of-control bad boy destined to do permanent harm to himself. You see it enough, and you get used to the patterns. Sadly resigned, you wait for the other shoe to drop.

His dependency issues had roots in his upbringing, just as his interest in acting had. In that courtroom in 1999, Downey said that he’d been addicted to drugs since he was eight. Downey’s father, independent filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., who had his own addiction battles, later admitted to letting his son smoke a joint when the boy was just six: “I knew I had made a terrible, stupid mistake … Giving a little kid a toke of grass just to be funny.”

The younger Downey had appeared in some of his dad’s movies as a kid, but he started garnering the world’s attention thanks to films like “ Weird Science .” And then he was picked for “Saturday Night Live.” Downey and many of his fellow cast members were dismissed after one season. Sometimes, “SNL” makes bad decisions about who gets cut from the show—Downey would be the first to admit his firing was not one of those instances. “I learned so much in that year about what I wasn’t,” he’d say later . “I was not somebody who was going to come up with a catchphrase. I was not somebody who was going to do impressions. I was somebody who was very ill-suited for rapid-fire sketch comedy.” 

Still, Downey found the energy of live comedy exhilarating, adding, “You get a lot of cred just for being able to even participate in that level of real-time stress and excitement.”

By the late 1980s, he was a legitimate star, his good looks and smart-ass demeanor utilized in romantic comedies like “The Pick-up Artist” and “ Chances Are .” (Considering his role in “Oppenheimer,” it’s amusing to point out that Downey played Albert Einstein in the 1989 mockumentary “That’s Adequate.”) But the most pivotal movie was “ Less Than Zero ,” an adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel that saw him play Julian, a drug addict in a downward spiral. His performance was gripping, but Downey all-too-closely identified with the character. 

“Until that movie, I took my drugs after work and on the weekends,” he’d say later . “Maybe I’d turn up hungover on the set, but no more so than the stuntman. That changed on ‘Less Than Zero.’ … [T]he role was like the ghost of Christmas future. The character was an exaggeration of myself. Then things changed and, in some ways, I became an exaggeration of the character. That lasted far longer than it needed to last.”

Downey’s career continued to blossom in the 1990s: Beyond “Chaplin,” he was superb in Robert Altman ’s ensemble piece “ Short Cuts ” and suitably unhinged in Oliver Stone ’s combustible “ Natural Born Killers .” On screen, he seemed willing to do anything—not bug-eyed crazed like Nicolas Cage but rippling with immediacy and unpredictability—but his drug use was increasingly becoming an issue. Sarah Jessica Parker , whose seven-year relationship with the actor ended in 1991, later admitted of their time together , “It taught me how I love and what’s the difference between loving and taking care of people and what’s necessary and what grown-ups should and shouldn’t do for one [another]. And maybe it taught me a little bit about being a parent, too, because … the way I cared for Downey were things that might be more suitable for a parent.” 

It wasn’t just girlfriends who were concerned: In an interview with Oprah Winfrey , Downey recalled working on 1995’s “Home for the Holidays,” director Jodie Foster taking him aside and saying, “You know you’re doing great on this film, and I know that you’re loaded, too. … I’m worried about you. Not on this one, because we’re almost done and you’re going to be okay, and I know you have a really strong work ethic and you’re kind of like a lab rat. You’re really resilient. That’s not a good thing in this situation. I’m worried about you for the next movie.”

Foster’s worries were well-founded. The following year was a period in which Downey kept getting in trouble with the law. Arrested three times in the summer of 1996, he was busted for (among other things) possession of cocaine and heroin. The frequency of his arrests quickly eviscerated his reputation, leaving former reps fearing the worst. Loree Rodkin, his one-time manager, told People that summer, “Every day I look in the newspaper, and I think that I am going to read Robert’s obituary.” 

In 1997, he was sentenced to six months in prison because of a violation of his probation. (In the interim, he’d made headlines a few more times, including being arrested on a narcotics charge after he’d broken into a neighbor’s house and fallen asleep in a child’s bedroom.) The judge who sentenced Downey to the six-month term was Mira, who you may remember ruled a few years later that the actor go to prison for three years. Mira had watched Downey try and fail to turn his life around: Back in 1997, he told Downey , “I’m going to incarcerate you, and I’m going to incarcerate you in a way that’s very unpleasant for you. I don’t care who you are. What I care about is that there is a life to be saved from drugs.” 

Downey was apologetic then as well, saying, “I don’t know why … the severity and the fear … of you, of death and of not being able to live a life free of drugs has not been enough to make me not continually relapse … again. I really need to do this, even if I don’t want to, I need to.”

Getting released early from prison after the 1999 sentencing didn’t do any good: He was arrested twice in the next year, leading to him being sent to a rehab facility. (It had not been Downey’s first such visit.) Around the same time, he won a Golden Globe after being cast on “Ally McBeal,” but he said in 2003 , “I’m probably not the best person to ask about that period. It was my lowest point in terms of addictions. At that stage, I didn’t give a fuck whether I ever acted again.” And yet, there were great performances: He’s funny in “ Bowfinger ” and “ Wonder Boys ,” and there are those who think the 2003 cult classic “ The Singing Detective ” is the best thing he’s ever done. 

But that was also the year he finally got serious about getting sober. His second wife, Susan, whom he met when she produced his film “ Gothika ,” gave him (in Downey’s words) an “ultimatum,” which started him down the road to staying clean. In his Winfrey interview, Downey admitted, “You think [overcoming addiction is] supposed to get more and more dramatic, it’s not a movie. It’s real life. For me, I just happened to be in a situation the very last time and I said, ‘You know what? I don’t think I can continue doing this.’ And I reached out for help and I ran with it, you know? … It’s really not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems. … What’s hard is to decide.”

I’m lucky never to have dealt with addiction, or to have anyone close to me who has, so I can’t pretend to know how complicated sobriety can be. But even so, I imagine it was much more challenging than Downey lets on. What’s undeniable is that, since getting sober in 2003, his career rebounded, even reached new heights. Whether it’s the R-rated crime comedy “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” or his role in the stirring drama “ Good Night, and Good Luck ,” he suddenly conveyed a weightier presence than he’d shown in his younger years. His turn as “Zodiac’s” haunted investigative reporter Paul Avery is arguably his finest hour — Downey’s trademark sardonic humor mixing with something far bleaker and emotional — and he’s a hoot in “A Scanner Darkly,” tapping into that dark comedy’s paranoid vibe. 

But no movie of that era—not even “ Tropic Thunder ,” which earned him his second Oscar nomination and spurred ongoing debate about whether his satiric blackface performance was inappropriate—defined his comeback more than 2008’s “ Iron Man .” Released the same summer as Nolan’s “ The Dark Knight ,” the other comic-book movie that changed the industry, “Iron Man” was no sure thing, with Downey (not that far removed from his legal issues) hardly an A-list superstar. But director Jon Favreau stuck by him, and the two men helped make the Marvel Cinematic Universe the biggest thing in Hollywood. There was a period when Downey was practically unemployable. ( Mel Gibson , his “Air America” co-star, put up the money to help insure Downey for “The Singing Detective,” a favor that—no matter Gibson’s many abhorrent acts—has kept Downey forever grateful to his friend .) But now, all of a sudden, Downey was cinema’s most important star.

Flash-forwarding to today, when superhero fatigue is starting to feel permanent, it can be hard to appreciate how meaningful Downey was to the MCU. Ironically, years earlier, “SNL” had hired him and others in the hopes that established actors would help revitalize the struggling show—in a sense, that’s what Downey actually did for Marvel, giving it an instant legitimacy. When other Oscar nominees (like Mark Ruffalo ) or respected indie stars (such as Scarlett Johansson ) started signing up for the MCU, it wasn’t so shocking. Alongside Nolan’s Batman films, which had earned Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar, the Marvel films sought the best actors in the world to sell the drama within the blockbuster spectacle. 

But other actors came and went in superhero movies. Some, like Chris Evans , openly lamented the demands of stardom. Not Downey: From “Iron Man” to his heroic death in 2019’s “ Avengers: Endgame ,” he was front and center. At MCU premieres, he always spoke last. He was the team captain. It wasn’t simply Tony Stark’s death that irrevocably changed the franchise’s future—it was the fact that Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t part of the MCU anymore that made the difference. Those movies’ heart—their upstart energy—was gone. Five years later, Kevin Feige is still trying to find a worthy replacement. 

Since exiting the MCU, Downey has kept working, never badmouthing the Iron Man years but also wanting to create a little distance. As he once put it , “I am not my work. I am not what I did with that studio. I am not that period of time that I spent playing this character.” Some of those post-Marvel projects have been disastrous—even on a bet, avoid “ Dolittle ”—but others were clearly personal. 

Working with prolific documentarian Chris Smith (“ American Movie ,” “ Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond ”), Downey decided to make a tribute to his father. “Sr.” chronicled Robert Downey Sr.’s filmmaking career, but its most affecting moments came from the two men simply talking, the son asking his dad about his life. There’s no grand catharsis—no moment of riveting candor in which they tearfully hash out their shared battles with addiction—but it’s clear that part of their bond was formed by what Sr. had introduced into Jr.’s world by giving him that joint so long ago. Downey Sr., who has Parkinson’s in the film, died in 2021, more than a year before the documentary’s release, and “Sr.” feels like a melancholy farewell to a father from his boy, who struggled as much as the old man with demons. But it also feels like the closing of a chapter for Downey, with a new one about to be written.

“Oppenheimer” was the first movie Downey made after his dad’s passing , his connection to some of the film’s New Mexico locations stemming from spending time there with his dad when he was a teenager . After working on the documentary and taking an acting hiatus , Downey got back in front of the camera to play a man so unlike himself—or, at least, the men he usually portrays. Strauss is deeply insecure and petty, his arrogance belying his smallness. Lacking any sense of humor, Strauss is the villain, the Salieri trying to take down his personal Mozart. Where Downey’s characters tend to be highly verbal, almost hyperactive, Strauss was hushed, unanimated. Tony Stark was triumphant—Lewis Strauss is humiliated in the most public fashion imaginable. Robert Downey Jr. returned to cinemas, but he wasn’t the man we remembered.

As awards talk has focused on Downey over these last few months, it was easy to see why he’d be a front-runner. After years making superhero films, the once-rising actor’s actor had refocused his talents on serious drama. But anyone who’s loved Downey knows the comeback narrative goes much further back—and is far more fraught. 

I distinctly remember his “gun metal” line in 1999, mentally making peace back then with the fact that he might not be with us much longer. Movie stars aren’t our friends, but if we watch them long enough on the big screen, we feel like we know them. And they can break our hearts. A decade later, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death still bothers me—the tragedy of it, the senselessness of it, the power of addiction, the incalculable loss. Downey seemed fated to go down the same path. 

When stars die too young, we lament what could have been—what incredible performances they might have gifted us with. Assuming Downey does win the Oscar, it will be the capper on a happy ending that is not, in fact, over. We don’t have to wonder what Downey might have done if he’d gotten sober. He has, and we have his terrific turn in “Oppenheimer” as a result. We’re living in a future we’d not dared to believe was possible.

Tim Grierson

Tim Grierson is the Senior U.S. Critic for  Screen International . 

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The Best Biography

Robert Downey Jr. (American Actor) Biography

January 9, 2024 by Sophia Leave a Comment

Robert Downey, Jr.  (born April 4, 1965, New York City, New York, U.S.) American actor considered one of Hollywood’s most gifted and versatile performers. Robert Downey was raised in an artistic household in New York City’s Greenwich Village; his father was a noted underground filmmaker who gave the five-year-old Downey his first part. After dropping out of high school in California, Downey returned to New York City to pursue an acting career. 

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Robert Downey Info

Robert downey early life and family.

Downey was born in Manhattan, New York City, the younger of two children. His father, Robert Downey Sr., was an actor and filmmaker, while his mother, Elsie Ann (née Ford), was an actress who appeared in Downey Sr.’s films. Downey’s father was of half Lithuanian Jewish, one-quarter Hungarian Jewish, and one-quarter Irish descent, while Downey’s mother had Scottish, German, and Swiss ancestry. Robert’s original family name was Elias which was changed by his father to enlist in the Army. Downey and his older sister Allyson grew up in Greenwich Village.

During his childhood, Downey had minor roles in his father’s films. He made his acting debut at the age of five, playing a sick puppy in the absurdist comedy  Pound  (1970), and then at seven appeared in the surrealist Western  Greaser’s Palace  (1972). At the age of 10, he was living in England and studied classical ballet as part of a larger curriculum. He attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York as a teenager. When his parents divorced in 1978, Downey moved to California with his father, but in 1982, he dropped out of Santa Monica High School, and moved back to New York to pursue an acting career full-time.

Downey and Kiefer Sutherland, who shared the screen in the 1988 drama  1969 , were roommates for three years when he first moved to Hollywood to pursue his career in acting.

Robert Downey Career

Downey began building upon theater roles, including in the short-lived off-Broadway musical  American Passion  at the Joyce Theater in 1983, produced by Norman Lear. In 1985, he was part of the new, younger cast hired for  Saturday Night Live , but following a year of poor ratings and criticism of the new cast’s comedic talents, he and most of the new crew were dropped and replaced. Rolling Stone magazine named Downey the worst  SNL  cast member in its entire run, stating that the “Downey Fail sums up everything that makes  SNL  great.” That same year, Downey had a dramatic acting breakthrough when he played James Spader’s character’s sidekick in  Tuff Turf  and then a bully in John Hughes’s  Weird Science . He was considered for the role of Duckie in John Hughes’s film  Pretty in Pink  (1986), but his first lead role was with Molly Ringwald in  The Pick-up Artist  (1987). Because of these and other coming-of-age films Downey did during the 1980s, he is sometimes named as a member of the Brat Pack.

In 1987, Downey played Julian Wells, a rich boy whose life rapidly spirals out of his control, in the film version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel  Less than Zero . His performance, described by Janet Maslin in  The New York Times  as “desperately moving”, was widely praised, though Downey has said that for him “the role was like the ghost of Christmas Future”.  Zero  drove Downey into films with bigger budgets and names, such as  Chances Are  (1989) with Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O’Neal,  Air America  (1990) with Mel Gibson, and  Soapdish  (1991) with Sally Field, Kevin Kline, and Whoopi Goldberg.

In 1992, he starred as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, a role for which he prepared extensively, learning how to play the violin as well as tennis left-handed. He had a personal coach in order to help him imitate Chaplin’s posture, and a way of carrying himself. The role garnered Downey an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor at the Academy Awards 65th ceremony, losing to Al Pacino in  Scent of a Woman .

In 1993, he appeared in the films  Heart and Souls  with Alfre Woodard and Kyra Sedgwick and  Short Cuts  with Matthew Modine and Julianne Moore, along with a documentary that he wrote about the 1992 presidential campaigns titled  The Last Party  (1993). He starred in the 1994 films,  Only You  with Marisa Tomei, and  Natural Born Killers  with Woody Harrelson. He then subsequently appeared in  Restoration  (1995),  Richard III  (1995),  Home for the Holidays  (1995),  Two Girls and a Guy  (1997), as Special Agent John Royce in U.S. Marshals (1998), and in Black and White (1999).

Robert Downey Career Setbacks

In April 1996, Downey was arrested for possession of an unloaded .357 Magnum handgun while he was speeding down Sunset Boulevard. A month later, while on parole, he trespassed into a neighbor’s home and fell asleep in one of the beds. He received three years’ probation.

In 1999, he was arrested again. A week after his 2000 release, Downey joined the cast of the hit television series  Ally McBeal , playing a new love interest. He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. He also appeared as a writer and singer on Vonda Shepard’s  Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life  album, and sang with Sting a duet of “Every Breath You Take” in an episode of the series. In January 2001, Downey was scheduled to play the role of Hamlet in a Los Angeles stage production directed by Mel Gibson.

Before the end of his first season on  Ally McBeal , over the Thanksgiving 2000 holiday, Downey was arrested when his room at Merv Griffin’s Hotel and Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs, California, was searched by the police, who were responding to an anonymous 911 call. Despite the fact that, if convicted, he would have faced a prison sentence of up to four years and eight months, he signed on to appear in at least eight more Ally McBeal episodes.

In April 2001, while Downey was on parole, a Los Angeles police officer found him wandering barefooted in Culver City. He was arrested, but was released a few hours later. After this last arrest,  Ally McBeal  executives ordered last-minute rewrites and reshoots and fired Downey, despite the fact that Downey’s character had resuscitated  Ally McBeal ‘s ratings. The Culver City arrest also cost him a role in the high-profile film America’s Sweethearts, and the subsequent incarceration prompted Gibson to cancel his  Hamlet  production. In July 2001, Downey pleaded no contest to the Palm Springs charges, avoiding jail time.

In a December 18, 2000, article for People magazine entitled “Bad to Worse”, Downey’s stepmother Rosemary told author Alex Tresnlowski that Downey had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder “a few years ago” and added that this was “the reason he has a hard time staying sober. What hasn’t been tried is medication and intensive psychotherapy”. In the same article, Dr. Manijeh Nikakhtar, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and co-author of Addiction or Self-Medication: The Truth, claimed she received a letter from Downey in 1999, during his time at Corcoran II, asking for advice on his condition. She discovered that “no one had done a complete [psychiatric] evaluation [on him] … I asked him flat out if he thought he was bipolar, and he said, ‘Oh yeah. There are times I spend a lot of money and I’m hyperactive, and there are other times I’m down.'” In an article for the March 2007 issue of Esquire, Downey stated that he wanted to address “this whole thing about the bipolar” after receiving a phone call from “the Bipolar Association” asking him about being bipolar. When Downey denied he had ever said he was bipolar, the caller quoted the  People  article, to which Downey replied, “‘No!  Dr. Malibusian  said [I said I was bipolar] … ‘, and they go, ‘Well, it’s been written, so we’re going to quote it.'” Downey flatly denied being “depressed or manic” and that previous attempts to diagnose him with any kind of psychiatric or mood disorder have always been skewed.

Robert Downey, Jr.’s Net Worth

Robert Downey, Jr is an American actor, producer and singer. Robert Downey, Jr has a net worth of $300 million. Robert Downey, Jr. is probably most widely recognized today for his role as Iron Man in the Marvel franchise of the same name. The role made him one of the highest-paid actors in the history of Hollywood.

Robert Downey, Jr. has had some incredible ups and downs in both his personal and professional lives. Always recognized as a brilliant actor, he also had a penchant for partying too hard, and a nasty habit of drinking and/or drugging himself into a stupor.  Unfortunately, his lifestyle caught up with him and derailed his career. After jail time, and multiple trips to rehab, he finally got himself straightened out.  The last ten years have seen him shoot to the top of the A-list in Hollywood, appearing in such hit projects as the “Sherlock Holmes” franchise, the “Iron Man” franchise, “The Soloist”, “Tropic Thunder”, the surprise independent hit, “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints”, and “Kiss Kiss Bang,Bang”, among many others.

Robert Downey FAST FACTS

• Dropped out of high school to pursue an acting career
• Won the title role of Chaplin over Dustin Hoffman, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams
• Received “Man of the Year” honors from Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals in February 2004
• Released debut album, The Futurist, in 2004
• Its highlight: a duet with Yes lead singer Jon Anderson on the classic Yes track “Your Move
• ” Son Indio appears in the opening scene of Downey’s 2005 film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang as a younger version of Downey’s character
• Launched the production company Team Downey in 2010, along with his producer wife, Susan

Robert Downey AWARDS

• 2020People’s Choice Awards-Favorite Movie Actor: Nominated
• 2019People’s Choice Awards-Favorite Movie Actor: Winner
• 2014Critics’ Choice Movie Awards-Best Actor in an Action Movie: Nominated
• 2013Critics’ Choice Movie Awards-Best Actor in an Action Movie: Nominated
• 2010Golden Globe-Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Winner
• 2009BAFTA Film Awards-Best Supporting Actor: Nominated
• 2009Critics’ Choice Awards-Best Supporting Actor: Nominated
• 2008Oscar-Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Nominated
• 2008Southeastern Film Critics Association-Best Supporting Actor: Nominated
• 2008Chicago Film Critics Association-Best Supporting Actor: Nominated
• 2008Detroit Film Critics Society-Best Supporting Actor: Nominated
• 2008Screen Actors Guild Awards-Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Nominated
• 2006Sundance Film Festival-Dramatic Special Jury Award: Best Ensemble Performance: Winner
• 2006Critics’ Choice Awards-Best Acting Ensemble: Nominated
• 2005Screen Actors Guild Awards-Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture: Nominated
• 2001Golden Globe-Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television: Winner
• 2001Emmy-Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Nominated
• 2000Screen Actors Guild Awards-Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series: Nominated
• 1993Golden Globe-Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Nominated
• 1993BAFTA Film Awards-Best Actor in a Leading Role: Winner
• 1992Oscar-Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Nominated

Robert Downey Relationship

• Avri Roel Downey — Daughter
• Sarah Jessica Parker — Ex-significant Other
• Deborah Falconer — Ex-wife
• Robert Downey Sr. — Father
• Elsie Downey — Mother
• Allyson Downey — Sister
• Exton Elias Downey — Son
• Indio Falconer Downey — Son
• Laura Downey — Stepmother
• Susan Downey — Wife

Robert Downey Relationships and family

Downey started dating actress Sarah Jessica Parker in 1984 after meeting her on the set of  Firstborn . The couple later separated in 1991.

He married actress and singer Deborah Falconer on May 29, 1992, after a 42-day courtship. Their son, Indio Falconer Downey, was born in September 1993. The strain on their marriage from Downey’s repeated trips to rehab and jail finally reached a breaking point; in 2001, in the midst of Downey’s last arrest and sentencing to an extended stay in rehab, Falconer left Downey and took their son with her. Downey and Falconer finalized their divorce on April 26, 2004.

In 2003, Downey met producer Susan Downey (née Levin), an Executive Vice President of Production at Joel Silver’s film company, Silver Pictures on the set of  Gothika . Though Susan twice turned down his amorous advances, she and Downey did quietly strike up a romance during production. Despite Susan’s worries that the romance would not last after the completion of shooting because “he’s an actor; I have a real job”, the couple’s relationship continued after production wrapped on  Gothika , and Downey proposed to Susan on the night before her thirtieth birthday. In August 2005, the couple were married, in a Jewish ceremony, at Amagansett, New York. A tattoo on one of his biceps reads “Suzie Q” in tribute to her. The Downeys’ first child, a son named Exton Elias, was born in February 2012, and their second, a daughter named Avri Roel, was born in November 2014.

Downey has been a close friend of Mel Gibson since they starred in  Air America . Downey defended Gibson during the controversy surrounding  The Passion of the Christ , and said “nobody’s perfect” in reference to Gibson’s DUI. Gibson said of Downey: “He was one of the first people to call and offer the hand of friendship. He just said, ‘Hey, welcome to the club. Let’s go see what we can do to work on ourselves.'” In October 2011, Downey was being honored at the 25th American Cinematheque Awards; Downey chose Gibson to present him with his award for his life’s work and used his air time to say a few kind words about Gibson and explain why he chose him to present the award.

Robert Downey Iron Man and further Success

With all of the critical success Downey had experienced throughout his career, he had not appeared in a “blockbuster” film. That changed in 2008 when Downey starred in two critically and commercially successful films,  Iron Man  and  Tropic Thunder . In the article Ben Stiller wrote for Downey’s entry in the 2008 edition of  The Time 100 , he offered an observation on Downey’s commercially successful summer at the box office:

“Yes, Downey is  Iron Man , but he really is Actor Man … In the realm where box office is irrelevant and talent is king, the realm that actually means something, he has always ruled, and finally this summer he gets to have his cake and let us eat him up all the way to the multiplex, where his mastery is in full effect.”

In 2007, Downey was cast as the title character in the film  Iron Man , with director Jon Favreau explaining the choice by stating: “Downey wasn’t the most obvious choice, but he understood what makes the character tick. He found a lot of his own life experience in ‘Tony Stark’.” Favreau insisted on having Downey as he repeatedly claimed that Downey would be to  Iron Man  what Johnny Depp is to the  Pirates of the Caribbean  series: a lead actor who could both elevate the quality of the film and increase the public’s interest in it. For the role, Downey had to gain more than 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of muscle in five months to look like he “had the power to forge iron”.

Iron Man  was globally released between April 30 and May 3, 2008, grossing over $585 million worldwide and receiving rave reviews which cited Downey’s performance as a highlight of the film. By October 2008, Downey had agreed to appear as Iron Man in two  Iron Man  sequels, as part of the Iron Man franchise, as well as  The Avengers , featuring the superhero team that Stark joins, based on Marvel’s comic book series  The Avengers . He first reprised the role in a small appearance as Iron Man’s alter ego Tony Stark in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk, as a part of Marvel Studios’ depicting the same Marvel Universe on film by providing continuity among the movies.

Robert Downey Upcoming projects

Downey will appear in the sports comedy drama film  All-Star Weekend , directed by Jamie Foxx. He will reprise his role as Holmes in a third film, initially scheduled for release on December 22, 2021, but later put on hold indefinitely according to director Dexter Fletcher. On July 15, 2021, it was announced that Downey would co-star in the television adaptation of novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel,  The Sympathizer . Later in 2021, it was revealed that Downey would play Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming biographical film Oppenheimer. It was also announced he would star in the film  Play Dirty,  reuniting with Shane Black, the director of  Kiss Kiss Bang Bang  and  Iron Man 3 .

Robert Downey Movies

• Up the Academy 
•  Baby It’s You
•  Richard III
•  Home for the Holidays
•  One Night Stand
•  Friends & Lovers
•  Black & White
•  The Singing Detective
• . The Shaggy Dog
•  Charlie Bartlett
• The Incredible Hulk
•  The Soloist
•  Iron Man 2
•  The Avengers

Robert Downey Jr Gets Standing Ovation As He Wins Golden Globe For Oppenheimer !

Golden Globes 2024:  Hollywood superstar Robert Downey Jr on Sunday (Monday in India) won Best Supporting Actor award at the Golden Globes for Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed movie Oppenheimer. Downey Jr. played Lewis Strauss in Nolan’s biopic of the titular physicist (Cillian Murphy). Lewis Strauss played a significant role in the development of the atomic bomb and later became a political rival of J Robert Oppenheimer. Downey Jr received a standing ovation as he walked onto the stage to receive his award.

“Yeah, yeah, I took a beta blocker so this will be a breeze,” Downey Jr joked while accepting the Golden Globe. The actor said he was glad Universal “went all in” for Nolan and crew to “render a goddamn masterpiece.” He called it the “most improved” award and thanked his wife Susan, who “made an art out of extracting me from my comfort zone.”

Robert Downey Jr.'s speech after winning Best Supporting Actor at the #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/B9RG06TKss — Christopher Nolan Art & Updates (@NolanAnalyst) January 8, 2024

Most recently, Robert Downey Jr likened his role in Oppenheimer to his stint as Iron Man. “There have been three times in my career when I became completely obsessed with the possibility of playing a role,” he told W Magazine. “First time was Chaplin. Second time was Tony Stark, in Iron Man.”

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Robert Downey Jr. Through the Years: His Iconic Roles in ‘Iron Man,’ ‘Oppenheimer’ and More

Iron Man ’s Robert Downey Jr. is now one of the highest-grossing actors of all time, but he went on a rollercoaster journey to cement his status as a Hollywood legend.

Born in April 1965, Downey Jr. is the younger of two children shared by the late Robert Downey Sr. , an actor and filmmaker, and Elsie Ann Ford , an actress. Long before he became Tony Stark, Downey Jr. made his acting debut in his father’s  film Pound at the age of 5 and held a small role just a couple of years later in 1972’s Greaser’s Palace .

Unfortunately, it wasn’t just acting talent that the father and son shared. The late Downey Sr. struggled with substance abuse and let Downey Jr. try marijuana when he was just 6 years old.

“I passed him a joint,” Downey Sr. shared in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2000. “And suddenly knew I had made a terrible, stupid mistake.”

Downey Jr. battled drug addiction due to growing up in a household where he claimed “everyone was doing drugs” in a 1988 interview for Karen Hardy ’s book The New Breed: Actors Coming of Age . He even said that substance abuse was something he bonded with his father over.

“When my dad and I would do drugs together,” the Chaplin actor shared Hardy’s book. “It was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew.”

After being fired from Ally McBeal in 2001 and given the choice of prison or rehabilitation, Downey Jr. realized he needed to get sober and spent the next two years in rehab. He landed his first film role in The Singing Detective after getting sober and starred in Gothika where he met future wife, Susan Levin .

The two married in 2005 and he credits her for helping him on his sobriety journey. Filming for Gothika wrapped up and Downey Jr. was tempted to relapse, but Levin gave him an ultimatum.

“I said immediately, ‘This isn’t gonna work,’’ Levin shared with Bazaar in 2009. “I made it clear that to stay with me, nothing could happen.”

Something clicked for Downey Jr., because the next thing he did was stop at a Burger King on the Pacific Coast Highway and threw his drugs into the ocean.

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“He always says that we became this third thing when we got together,” Levin added. “Something that neither of us could have become by ourselves — and I think that’s true.”

Downey Jr. went on to star in Tropic Thunder and took on his biggest role to date, Tony Stark in Iron Man.

Keep scrolling to see the highlights of Downey Jr.’s career in photos:

Credit: Getty Images (2) ; Cover Images ; Universal Pictures

Iron Man ’s Robert Downey Jr. is now one of the highest-grossing actors of all time, but he went on a rollercoaster journey to cement his status as a Hollywood legend. Born in April 1965, Downey Jr. is the younger of two children shared by the late Robert Downey Sr. , an actor and filmmaker, and Elsie Ann Ford , an actress. Long before he became Tony Stark, Downey Jr. made his acting debut in his father’s  film Pound at the age of 5 and held a small role just a couple of years later in 1972’s Greaser’s Palace . Unfortunately, it wasn’t just acting talent that the father and son shared. The late Downey Sr. struggled with substance abuse and let Downey Jr. try marijuana when he was just 6 years old. “I passed him a joint,” Downey Sr. shared in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2000. “And suddenly knew I had made a terrible, stupid mistake.” Downey Jr. battled drug addiction due to growing up in a household where he claimed “everyone was doing drugs” in a 1988 interview for Karen Hardy ’s book The New Breed: Actors Coming of Age . He even said that substance abuse was something he bonded with his father over. “When my dad and I would do drugs together,” the Chaplin actor shared Hardy's book. “It was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew.” After being fired from Ally McBeal in 2001 and given the choice of prison or rehabilitation, Downey Jr. realized he needed to get sober and spent the next two years in rehab. He landed his first film role in The Singing Detective after getting sober and starred in Gothika where he met future wife, Susan Levin . The two married in 2005 and he credits her for helping him on his sobriety journey. Filming for Gothika wrapped up and Downey Jr. was tempted to relapse, but Levin gave him an ultimatum. “I said immediately, ‘This isn’t gonna work,’' Levin shared with Bazaar in 2009. “I made it clear that to stay with me, nothing could happen.” Something clicked for Downey Jr., because the next thing he did was stop at a Burger King on the Pacific Coast Highway and threw his drugs into the ocean. “He always says that we became this third thing when we got together,” Levin added. “Something that neither of us could have become by ourselves — and I think that’s true.” Downey Jr. went on to star in Tropic Thunder and took on his biggest role to date, Tony Stark in Iron Man. Keep scrolling to see the highlights of Downey Jr.’s career in photos:

Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

1970 to 1972

Downey Jr. made his acting debut at the age of five in his father’s 1970 film Pound and made an appearance in Greaser’s Palace in 1972.

Credit: Cover Images

1978 to 1983

When his parents divorced in 1978, Downey Jr. moved with his father to California. He dropped out of high school and moved back to New York to live with his mother four years later to pursue acting full-time and landed a role in the Off-Broadway musical American Passion .

1985 to 1987

Downey Jr. had his acting breakthrough in 1985’s Tuff Turf as Jimmy Parker and as Ian in Weird Science . His first lead role was in 1987 as Jack Jericho in The Pick-Up Artist . 

Credit: Dave Benett/Getty Images

1992 to 1993

The Johnny Be Good actor married Deborah Falconer in 1992 and welcomed son Indio the following year. 

Downey Jr. earned much acclaim for his portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in 1993’s Chaplin . He received his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor.

Downey Jr. scored his first Golden Globe win in 1994. The special award was outside of the competitive categories and was given to specifically honor the ensemble cast of Short Cuts , which also included Julianne Moore , Jack Lemmon and Tim Robbins .

1996 to 1997

He was arrested several times between 1996 to 2000 for drug-related charges. In 1996, he was charged with possession of cocaine, heroin and an unloaded .357-caliber Magnum. He was sentenced to three years of probation and drug testing. After missing a court-ordered drug test in 1997, Downey Jr. had to spend 113 days in a Los Angeles County jail. 

Amid his struggle with addiction and the law, Falconer separated from Downey Jr. in 1996 after four years of marriage, but she didn’t file for a divorce until 2001. Their split was finalized in 2004.

Credit: Kypros/Getty Images

1999 to 2000

He missed another drug test in 1999 and was sentenced to three years at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, though he was released early in August 2000. One week later, he was cast on the hit series Ally McBeal , but he was arrested for drug use again in November. 

“It was just playing a game of wanting to self-soothe or stay loaded, rather than deal with the fact that things had gone off the tracks a little bit,” Downey Jr. said in the 2022 documentary, Sr . 

Credit: Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect

Though Downey Jr. earned an Emmy nomination and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film, he was fired from the show in April 2001. Following his November 2000 arrest, he was found high and barefoot in April 2001. 

After his April arrest, the actor was ready to take recovery seriously. He entered a live-in rehabilitation center later that month. When he faced the court the following July, he pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and was sentenced to three years probation. He was also officially ordered to attend a residential rehab for one year.

Credit: Lawrence Lucier/FilmMagic

2003 to 2007

After rehab, it was difficult for studios to insure Downey given his history. He made a return to the big screen after Mel Gibson , a close friend, paid his insurance bond for 2003’s The Singing Detective . Downey Jr. starred in Gothika (where producers held 40 percent of his salary until production wrapped as insurance) and met future wife , Susan Levin, on set. 

In 2004, Downey Jr. released his debut studio album, The Futurist . He married Levin a year later and the two share children, Exton and Avri. Downey Jr. appeared in Shane Black ’s directorial debut of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and the 2007 thriller Zodiac .

Downey Jr. started his journey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the title character of 2008’s Iron Man and made a cameo as Tony Stark in The Incredible Hulk . After the film's worldwide success, Downey Jr. had agreed to two Iron Man sequels as well as the first Avengers film.

Downey Jr. starred alongside Ben Stiller , Jack Black and Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder . He earned Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for his role of Kirk Lazarus.

Downey Jr. earned a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy as the titular character in Sherlock Holmes . He returned as Tony Stark in Iron Man 2 that same year, and founded the production company, Team Downey, with his wife.

2012 to 2019

Downey was regularly on the big screen as Tony Stark. Over the next seven years, he starred in The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame . His final film as Iron Man, Endgame , became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, earning more than $2.7 billion worldwide.

Credit: Universal Pictures

Downey Jr. portrayed the United States Atomic Energy Commission member, Lewis Strauss , in Oppenheimer . The film follows American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy ), who is credited for his role in the Manhattan Project during World War II. 

Credit: JC Olivera/Getty Images

The Oppenheimer star received Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for his performance in the film for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture and Best Supporting Actor respectively.

Downey Jr. is set to star in the film The Sympathizer , which premieres in April 2024. 

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Robert Downey Jr: A Short Unauthorized Biography Paperback – February 16, 2022

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Robert Downey Jr: A Short Unauthorized Biography is a short unauthorized biography produced from electronic resources researched that includes significant events and career milestones.

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• Print length 32 pages
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With 7 Short Words at the Oscars, 'Oppenheimer' Star Robert Downey Jr. Just Taught a Brilliant Lesson in Success

T hink of the hardest times in your life -- the truly 'terrible' experiences you say you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Can you find a reason to express gratitude for them?

The big winner at the 96th Oscars last night was Oppenheimer , with seven Academy Awards -- including Best Picture, along with Best Director to Christopher Nolan, Best Actor to Cillian Murphy, and Best Supporting Actor to Robert Downey Jr.

Downey's award stood out. By my count, Oppenheimer was Downey's 82nd movie role, spanning more than 50 years before finally winning an Oscar.

Given how long he's had to think about what he might say if he won, I had a feeling there might be something profound, or interesting, or at least memorable, in Downey's acceptance speech.

Right out of the gate, he didn't disappoint:

"I'd like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy, in that order."

As they say, comedy is simply tragedy plus time. And I want to focus on this line, especially the first seven words, because honestly -- when people think of Robert Downey Jr., I think they think of two things:

• A talented generational actor, whose movies have grossed nearly $15 billion over time (second only to Scarlett Johansson).
• A man who has battled heavy addiction problems, and at one point was considered so unpredictable that producers had a hard time getting insurance for his roles.

Quick background for those who might not know:

Downey is the son of the late director Robert Downey Sr., and he made his debut at age 5 in one of his father's films. He was a popular actor in his youth, but Downey's career was plagued by setbacks, largely because of episodes brought about by addiction.

Among the lowlights, he was arrested in 1996 for having wandered into a neighbor's house while on some kind of bender and passing out in an 11-year-old child's bedroom.

He also faced gun charges and escaped from drug treatment. Eventually, a judge sentenced him to three years in prison for breaking parole on previous charges. (He served one year, but he also had other year-long stints in rehab and shorter jail sentences.)

"It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth," Downey told that judge, "and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal."

When we talk about his "terrible childhood," as Downey did in his speech, he's said before that he first started using drugs -- given to him by his father -- when he was about 8 years old.

Beyond that, he clearly had a rough time growing up -- dealing with his parents' divorce, moving back and forth across the country to be with each parent in turn, and ultimately dropping out of high school.

Now, he's won an Oscar.

Look, maybe it's easy, or at least easier , to make jokes about a difficult childhood and addiction problems in your past when you're experiencing a moment of triumph, as Downey was last night.

But I think there's something very instructive about being able to go a step further and say that you're actually grateful for those difficult experiences. Truly, it's this kind of active gratitude that can be a prerequisite for true success and happiness, no matter what your professional calling in life.

I suspect it might be especially true for an actor, because in order to portray emotion on stage or screen authentically, one often has to have truly and thoroughly felt those emotions in reality.

Now, I'm not sure that Downey's speech will wind up being the most-remembered from last night's Oscar ceremony. That distinction might go to Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in The Holdovers .

"I always wanted to be different, but now I realize that I just need to be myself," said Randolph, in a speech that left a lot of the audience in tears. "Thank you for seeing me."

But in terms of the longest wait, and thus the most profound moment, I think Downey's was highly poignant.

Think of the hardest times in your life -- the truly "terrible" experiences you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Can you find a reason to express gratitude for them?

Reach the point where you can do that, and I think you'll be well on your way to success.

This post originally appeared at inc.com .

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Robert Downey Jr.’s Heroic Recovery: From Addict to Iron Man

One of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, Robert Downey Jr., is as well-known for being a talented, successful actor as he is for his struggle with addiction. He spent decades in and out of rehab, sobering up, slipping up, and getting arrested. It was a downward spiral that ended with him serving time in state prison. It took him losing everything—his money, career, and family—to finally face his addiction head-on and to find his way to recovery. The Iron Man star didn’t just play a superhero on the big screen—his triumph over addiction is a heroic tale of overcoming the odds and unlearning years of bad habits.

Growing Up Surrounded by Substance Abuse

Robert Downey Jr. was born in New York City in 1965 to underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. and actress Elsie Downey. At an early age, his father, who also struggled with substance abuse, introduced him to drugs, allowing him to try marijuana at a party when he was only eight years old. In an interview with People Magazine, Downey Jr. explained how doing drugs with his father became their way of bonding, and that this early exposure to drugs led Downey Jr. to spend most nights throughout his 20’s and 30’s getting drunk and scouting dealers.

In the early 1980s, Robert Downey Jr. left New York City for Hollywood to pursue an acting career, where his role in the film Weird Science earned him a spot in The Brat Pack, a group of young actors who starred in many of the decade’s most iconic coming-of-age films. In 1985, he joined the cast on Saturday Night Live for a year before landing his first leading role in The Pick-Up Artist, at which point his acting career took off.

The Beginning of His Career and His Struggle with Addiction

In 1987, Downey Jr. gave a stellar performance as a wealthy, troubled youth in the film Less Than Zero, followed by an unexpected triumph as Charlie Chaplin in Richard Attenborough’s biopic Chaplin in 1992 that earned him an Oscar nomination. He continued starring in films even as his struggle with alcohol and drug use began to take hold of his life off the set. He was able to stay sober while working on a film for a period of time but would soon fall off the wagon and begin using again, going on days-long benders. By 1995, he was smoking heroin and freebasing cocaine, leading to several arrests and stints in rehab facilities. In the summer of 1996, within the span of just a few weeks, Downey Jr. was arrested multiple times for bizarre and reckless, drug-fueled behavior. This included one incident when police stopped him for speeding and found him not only intoxicated, but with heroin and cocaine on him, and an unloaded .356 magnum in his passenger seat. Soon after, he was picked up by police again when he wandered into a neighbor’s home and passed out in their son’s bedroom. This was the beginning of Downey Jr.’s downward spiral.

Read More: What’s the Difference Between Crack and Cocaine?

Hitting Rock Bottom and Losing It All

For the next few years, Downey Jr. cycled in and out of rehab for addiction in state institutions throughout California. In 1999, he was sentenced to 36 months in state prison, where he spent 12 months serving time before being paroled. He was arrested two more times within eight months before being sent to rehab for six months at Wavelengths International, one of many court-mandated addiction treatment centers he visited over the years. For Robert Downey, Jr., this period of his life was what he calls his “rock bottom,” when he reached his lowest point of addiction and lost everything. His wife left him and took their son. He was fired from his acting job on the show Ally McBeal. He was in massive debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. It was then that he decided it was time to take a year and fully address his substance abuse. It was time for recovery.

A Cinematic Recovery and a Hollywood Ending

Today, Robert Downey Jr. enjoys a relatively quiet life, trading wild nights out and weekend-long drug binges for nights in and weekends spent with his family in their Malibu home. The 54-year-old credits his relationship with his wife Susan, his children, Eastern martial arts, yoga, and the 12-Step program for helping him overcome his addiction and stay sober. Of course, his career also keeps him busy and focused. His latest film, Dolittle, came out earlier this year. He and his wife also work at the film production company they founded together, Team Downey.

In a famous Vanity Fair interview, Downey Jr., then age 49 with about a decade of sobriety under his belt, said, “For some folks it’s just a function of age. It’s perfectly normal for people to be obsessive about something for a period of time, then leave it alone.”

While not everyone has such a cinematic and widely publicized journey to recovery as Robert Downey Jr., anyone has the ability to overcome addiction and live a sober, fulfilling life in recovery. If you are ready to start your journey in recovery, call DreamLife Recovery at (844) 402-3592 .

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https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/09/robert-downey-jr-cover https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/magazine/the-sobering-life-of-robert-downey-jr.html https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/09/robert-downey-jr-addiction-children https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2014/09/robert-downey-jr-talks-about-addiction-and-passing-them-to-his-son https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf58LuOkyJk

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Robert Downey Jr. Height, Weight, Wife, Age, Biography & More

Some lesser known facts about robert downey jr..

• Does Robert Downey Jr. Smoke ? Yes
• Does Robert Downey Jr. Drink ? Not Known
• Robert was surrounded by drugs when he was a child because his father abused drugs. He let Jr. try Marijuana at the age of six which he regrets now. It was the bond between them as it was the only way his father knew to express his love. This led to Jr. being addicted to alcohol and making a thousand phone calls every night to get drugs!
• When his parents got divorced, he moved to California with his father but then dropped out of high school and moved to New York to pursue full-time acting.
• Downey started with Broadway play off and tried various parts, which did not turn out in his favor; and for the play the critics called him the worst of all the cast.
• He was appreciated for his role of a rich drug addict in the movie version of the novel Less Than Zero .  The New York Times described his performance as “Desperately moving”.
• Robert has topped Forbes’ list of the highest-paid actors making $80 million in the year 2014-2015.
• In 1992, he played the title character in the movie Chaplin, which earned him a nomination in the Academy Awards and a  BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
• Downey was in the  California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison  for drug charges. On release in 2000, he joined the TV show Ally McBeal acting  Calista Flockhart’s love interest, for which he won a Golden Globe.
• Robert was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor  for his role in the movie Tropic Thunder .
• Jr. has been playing Iron Man, either as the lead or the member of the ensemble cast and all the three movies have made more than $500 million each. These movies  The Avengers , Avengers: Age of Ultron , Iron Man 3  have earned over $1 billion worldwide.
• Woody Allen couldn’t cast Downey in his movie Melinda and Melinda because Jr. couldn’t be insured. He was disappointed as he really wanted to cast Bob Downey and Winona Ryder for it.
• Robert’s stepmother told the People’s Magazine about his bi-polar disorder and she said that this disorder is the reason why he can not be sober. Robert agreed to it saying that sometimes he spends a lot of cash instantly and also that he can be hyperactive at one moment and really down sometimes.
• After five years of arrests, relapse and rehab, Downey came back to movies in 2000. No rehab or psychotherapy could help him, until he was tired of the trouble that drug abuse brought.  He had his last chance and knew that he might get another prison sentence or a court rehab, when he thought enough is enough.
• Bob Downey was allowed a release to appear in a Elton John’s video song “I want to love”. He lip-synced and played it down really well.
• Jr. could come back to the big screen after Mel Gibson paid for his insurance. Mel and Robert had been friends since they did Air America .
• Robert had a comeback with the movie Gothika , for which the Producer Joe Silver withheld 40 percent of his money till his insurance was covered. This kind of clauses is common with his contracts till date.
• Downey is into singing as well. He sang with Sting for the show Ally McBeal and also released an album called The Futurist  with the record label  Sony Classical . He and his son  Indio designed the songs list and the cover of the album. Downey said he won’t be releasing another album because he wasn’t satisfied with the compensation as compared to the work he put in.
• Robert once broke into the neighbor’s house when he was high on drugs thinking it was his own house and slept on the bed there.
• Downey’s drug addiction was the reason for his relationship split with Sarah Jessica Parker. He said  “I liked to drink, and I had a drug problem, and that didn’t jibe with Sarah Jessica, because it is the furthest thing from what she is,” he told Parade in 2008. “She provided me a home and understanding. She tried to help me. She was so miffed when I didn’t get my act together.”
• He does Martial Arts Wing Chun.
• People’s magazine labeled him as the Sexiest Lawyer because of his role in “ Ally McBeal.”

Robert Downey Jr. while posing with the Golden Globe Award (2024)

• He was nominated for the 96th Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the film ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023) on January 23, 2024.

Robert Downey Jr. with the Best Actor in a Supporting Role award at the 77th BAFTAs

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Robert Downey Jr Biography Reading Comprehension Passage Printable Worksheet PDF

Subject: English

Age range: 10 - 16

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

21 March 2024

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Robert Downey Jr. is a highly acclaimed actor known for his talent and versatility. He began his acting career at a young age and has since starred in numerous films and TV shows. His portrayal of Iron Man in the Marvel movies has made him a beloved figure among children worldwide. Despite facing personal struggles, Robert has managed to overcome them and become an inspiration to others. He is not only a talented actor but also a philanthropist, actively supporting charitable causes. In his leisure time, he enjoys spending quality time with his family and pursuing his passion for music. Overall, Robert Downey Jr. is a remarkable individual who has achieved great success through hard work and determination.

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