Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. is an American actor known for roles in a wide variety of films,
including ‘Iron Man’, ‘The Avengers’, ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Chaplin’.

Synopsis: Born in New York City on April 4, 1965, Robert Downey Jr. began
acting as a young child. He made his first film 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 popular acclaim, and is considered one of
Hollywood’s A-list actors.

Family Life: 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., who is 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 her 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, California, with his father. At the age of 16, however, he dropped
out of high school and was on the move again, relocating to New York to live with
his mother.

Early roles: 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.

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

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, as well as 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
lll (1995), co-starring lan McKellen and Annette Bening; and the Jodie
Foster-directed Home for the Holidays, also starring Holly Hunter.

Personal Life and Challenges: Downey’s personal life had expanded,

too. In May 1992, he married actress Deborah Falconer. Two years
later, the couple had a son, Indio, naming friend and actor, Anthony
Michael Hall, as the boy’s godfather.

‘Ally McBeal’
‘Iron Man’
‘The Avengers’