Robert
Downey:
Born
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Occupation
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Actor, producer,
screenwriter, singer-songwriter, comedian
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Years active
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1970–present
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Spouse(s)
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Children
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Parents
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Robert John Downey, Jr
Robert
downey (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor who made his screen debut at
the age of five, appearing in his father Robert Downey, Sr.'s film Pound. He has appeared in roles associated with the Brat Pack, such as Less Than Zero and Weird Science. Other films he has starred in
include Air America, Soapdish, and Natural Born Killers. He starred as Charlie Chaplin, the title character in the 1992 film Chaplin, earning him a nomination for the Academy Award for
Best Actor.
After
being released from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and
State Prison
in 2000 for drug charges, Downey joined the cast of the TV series Ally McBeal playing Calista Flockhart's love interest. His performance was praised and he received
a Golden Globe Award
for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries,
or Television Film.
His character was written out when Downey was fired after two drug arrests in
late 2000 and early 2001. After one last stay in a court-ordered drug treatment
program, Downey finally achieved sobriety.
His more
recent films include The
Singing Detective,
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, A Scanner Darkly, Gothika, Zodiac and Tropic Thunder. In 2008, Downey played the role of Marvel superhero Tony Stark / Iron Man in the live action film Iron Man, a role he reprised in Iron Man 2, Marvel's The
Avengers,
and Iron Man 3. He reprised his role in a cameo appearance in The Incredible Hulk. He will again reprise his role in
the upcoming films, Avengers: Age of
Ultron and
another Avengers sequel. In 2009, he played the title character in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock
Holmes and again
in 2011's Sherlock
Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
Downey has
starred in six movies that have each grossed over $500 million at the box
office worldwide. Two of those films, The Avengers and Iron Man 3,
each earned over $1 billion. Downey tops the Forbes list of Hollywood's Highest-Paid Actors with an estimated $75 million in
earnings between June 2012 and June 2013.
His Early life and family:
Downey was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, the younger of two children. His
father, Robert Downey, Sr.,
is an actor, writer, producer, cinematographer, and director of underground films, and his mother, Elsie
(née Ford), is also an actress and appeared in Downey, Sr.'s films. His
paternal grandfather was of Lithuanian
Jewish ancestry and his paternal
grandmother was of Irish Canadian
and Hungarian
ancestry. His mother is of Scottish, German,
and Swiss German
descent. His father was born "Robert Elias", and changed his last
name to "Downey" (after his stepfather James Downey), when he was a
minor and wanted to enlist in the Army. He and his older sister, Allyson, grew
up in Greenwich Village.
As a child, Downey was
"surrounded by drugs". His father, a drug addict, allowed Downey to
use marijuana at age six, an incident which his father has said that he
now regrets. Downey stated that drug use became an emotional bond between him
and his father: "When my dad and I would do drugs together, it was like
him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew how."
Eventually, Downey began spending every night abusing alcohol and "making
a thousand phone calls in pursuit of drugs".
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 age seven appeared in the surrealist Greaser's
Palace (1972). At the age of ten, 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 together in
the 1988 film 1969,
were roommates for three years when he first moved to Hollywood to pursue his
career in acting.
Career
Beginnings
and critical acclaim
Downey began building upon theater
roles, including 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 replaced. That
same year, Downey had a dramatic acting breakthrough when he played James
Spader's sidekick in Tuff Turf
and then a bully in John Hughes'
Weird Science.
He was considered for the role of Duckie in John Hughes' film Pretty
in Pink (1986), but his first lead role
would be 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 drug-addicted 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" since his drug habit resulted
in his becoming an "exaggeration of the character" in real life. 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 and tennis left-handed. He even had a personal coach in order
to imitate Chaplin's posture and 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. His other films in the 1990s included Heart
and Souls, Only You,
Natural Born Killers, Restoration, Two Girls and a Guy, Black and White, Short Cuts,
Richard III, and The Last Party, a documentary written by Downey.
Career
troubles (1996–2001)
From 1996 through 2001, Downey was
arrested numerous times on drug-related charges including cocaine, heroin and marijuana and went several times through drug treatment programs
unsuccessfully, explaining in 1999 to a judge: "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." He explained his relapses by claiming to have been addicted to
drugs since the age of eight, due to the fact that his father, also an addict,
had been giving them to him.
In April 1996, Downey was arrested
for possession of heroin, cocaine and 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 while under the influence of a controlled
substance and fell asleep in one of the beds. He was sentenced to three years
of probation and required to undergo compulsory drug testing. In 1997, he
missed one of the court-ordered drug tests and had to spend four months in the
Los Angeles County jail.
After Downey missed another required
drug test in 1999, he was arrested once more. Despite Downey's lawyer, John
Stewart Holden, assembling for his client's 1999 defense the same team of
lawyers that successfully defended O.J.
Simpson during his criminal trial for murder, Downey was sentenced to a three-year prison term at the California
Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California (a.k.a. "Corcoran II").
At the time of the 1999 arrest, all of Downey's film projects had wrapped and
were close to release, with the exception of In Dreams,
which he was allowed to complete filming. He had also been hired for voicing
"The
Devil" on the NBC animated television series God, the Devil and Bob, but was fired when he failed to show up for rehearsals.
After spending nearly a year in
California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California, Downey, on condition of posting $5,000 bail, was
unexpectedly freed when a judge ruled that his collective time in incarceration
facilities (spawned from the initial 1996 arrests) had qualified him for early
release. A week after his 2000 release, Downey joined the cast of the hit
television series Ally McBeal,
playing the new love interest of Calista
Flockhart's title character. His performance
was praised and the following year he was nominated for an Emmy
Award in the Outstanding
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
category and won a Golden Globe
for Best Supporting Actor in a
mini-series or television film.
He also appeared as a writer and singer on Vonda
Shepard's Ally McBeal: For Once in My
Life album, and he sang with Sting
a duet of "Every Breath You Take" in an episode of the series. Despite the apparent
success, Downey claims that his performance on the series was overrated and
that, "It was my lowest point in terms of addictions. At that stage, I
didn't give a fuck whether I ever acted again." 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. Downey was under the influence of a controlled substance
and in possession of cocaine and Valium. Despite the fact that, if convicted, he could face 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 he was on
parole, a Los Angeles police officer found him wandering barefoot in Culver
City, just outside Los Angeles. He was
arrested for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, but was released
a few hours later, even though tests showed he had cocaine in his system. After
this last arrest, producer David
E. Kelley and other Ally McBeal
executives ordered last-minute rewrites and reshoots and dismissed Downey from
the show, 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 forced Mel Gibson to shut
down his planned stage production of Hamlet, as well. In July 2001,
Downey pleaded no contest
to the Palm Springs charges, avoiding jail time. Instead, he was sent into drug
rehabilitation and put on a three-year probation, benefiting from the California
Proposition 36, which had been passed the year
before with the aim of helping nonviolent drug offenders overcome their
addictions instead of sending them to jail.
The book Conversations with Woody
Allen reports that director Woody
Allen wanted to cast Downey and Winona
Ryder in his film Melinda and Melinda in 2005, but was unable to do so because he could not get
insurance on them, stating, "We couldn't get bonded. The completion bonding
companies would not bond the picture unless we could insure them. We were
heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before [on Celebrity]
and thought she was perfect for this and wanted to work with her again. And I
had always wanted to work with Bob Downey and always thought he was a huge
talent."
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 his bipolar disorder 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, says 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 told author Scott Raab 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 because "the guy I was seeing didn't know I was
smokin' crack
in his bathroom. You can't make a diagnosis until somebody's sober."
Career
comeback (2001–2008)
After five years of substance abuse,
arrests, rehab, and relapse, Robert Downey Jr. was finally ready to work toward
a full recovery from drugs and a return to his career. In discussing his failed
attempts to control his own addictive behavior in the past, Downey told Oprah
Winfrey in November 2004 that "when
someone says, 'I really wonder if maybe I should go to rehab?' Well, uh, you're
a wreck, you just lost your job, and your wife left you. Uh, you might want to
give it a shot." He added that after his last arrest in April 2001, when
he knew he would likely be facing another stint in prison or another form of
incarceration such as court-ordered rehab, "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 can reach out for help in kind of a half-assed way and you'll get
it and you won't take advantage of it. It's not that difficult to overcome
these seemingly ghastly problems...what's hard is to decide to do it."
Downey got his first post-rehab
acting job in August 2001, lip-syncing in the video for Elton
John's single "I Want Love". Video director Sam
Taylor-Wood shot 16 takes of the video and used
the last one because, according to John, Downey looked completely relaxed, and,
"The way he underplays it is fantastic."
Downey was able to return to the big
screen only after Mel Gibson,
who had been a close friend to Downey since both had co-starred in Air
America, paid Downey's insurance bond for the 2003 film The Singing Detective. Gibson's gamble paved the way for Downey's comeback and
Downey returned to mainstream films in the mid-2000s with Gothika, for which producer Joel
Silver withheld 40 percent of his salary
until after production wrapped as insurance against his addictive behavior.
Similar clauses have become standard in his contracts since then.
After Gothika, Downey was
cast in a number of leading and supporting roles, including well-received work
in a number of semi-independent films: A Guide to
Recognizing Your Saints, Good Night, and Good Luck, A Scanner Darkly, and Steven
Shainberg's fictional biographical film of Diane
Arbus, Fur, where Downey's character represented the two biggest
influences on Arbus' professional life, Lisette
Model and Marvin
Israel. Downey also received great notice
for his roles in more mainstream fare such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Disney's poorly received The Shaggy Dog, and David
Fincher's 2007 film Zodiac, in which he played San Francisco Chronicle journalist Paul
Avery.
On November 23, 2004, Downey
released his debut musical album, The Futurist, on Sony
Classical, for which he designed the cover
art and designed the track listing label on the CD with his son Indio. The
album received mixed reviews, but Downey stated in 2006 that he probably will
not do another album, as he felt that the energy he put into doing the album
was not compensated.
In 2006, Downey returned to his
television roots when he guest-starred on Family
Guy in the episode "The Fat Guy Strangler". Downey had previously telephoned the show's
production staff and asked if he could produce or assist in an episode
creation, as his son Indio is a fan of the show. The producers of the show
accepted the offer and created the character of Patrick
Pewterschmidt, Lois
Griffin's long lost, mentally disturbed
brother, for Downey.
Downey signed on with publishers HarperCollins to write a memoir, which in 2006 was already being billed
as a "candid look at the highs and lows of his life and career". In
2008, however, Downey returned his advance to the publishers and canceled the
book without further comment.
Personal
life
Downey, Jr. and his wife, Susan
Downey, at the 2010 Academy Awards
Downey started dating actress Sarah Jessica Parker after meeting her on the set of Firstborn.
They separated in 1991 because of his drug addiction, according to Downey. He
married actress/singer Deborah
Falconer on May 29, 1992, after a 42-day
courtship, and had a son with her, Indio Falconer Downey, born on September 7,
1993 in Los Angeles County,
California. 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 Indio with her. Downey and Falconer
finalized their divorce on April 26, 2004. Downey now sees his son frequently
after settling custody arrangements with Falconer.
In 2003, on the set of Gothika, Downey met producer Susan
Levin, an Executive Vice President of
Production at Joel Silver's
film company, Silver Pictures.
Downey and Susan quietly struck up a romance during production, though Susan
turned down his romantic advances twice. 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. The couple were married on August 27, 2005, in a
Jewish ceremony at Amagansett, New York. They have a son together named Exton Elias Downey, born on
February 7, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Downey has credited his wife with
helping him kick his drug and alcohol habits. "There's no understanding
for me of the bigger picture in real time in a hands-on way without her.
Because it was the perfect, perfect, perfect matching of personalities and
gifts." A tattoo on one of his biceps reads "Suzie Q" in tribute
to her.
Downey says he has been drug-free
since July 2003, thanks to his family, therapy, meditation,
twelve-step recovery programs, yoga
and the practice of Wing Chun
Kung
Fu. He has described his religious
beliefs as "Jewish-Buddhist",and
in the past has been interested in Christianity and the Hare Krishna ideology. In a panel discussion, Rachel
McAdams, who co-starred with Downey in Sherlock Holmes, called him a "superhero" for his
"committed" work ethic. On the same panel, Downey described how he
worked long hours and many weekends to ensure the accuracy of his portrayal of
Holmes so as to help make the film a success.
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.
Said Gibson 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, Robert Downey Jr.
was being honored at the 25th American Cinematheque Awards. Downey chose Mel
Gibson, fellow actor and good friend, to
present him with his award for his life's work. After Gibson's introduction,
Downey did not discuss himself, instead he explained why he chose Gibson, and
continued to utilize his air time by saying a few kind words about Gibson, his
recently down-trodden friend. After relaying how Gibson immensely helped him
through his hardships, Downey addressed his fellow entertainers directly,
"I humbly ask that you join me - unless you are completely without sin,
and in which case you picked the wrong fucking industry - in forgiving my
friend of his trespasses and offering him the same clean slate that you have me
and allowing him to continue his great and on-going contribution to our
collective art without shame." After the speech, the two friends hugged
onstage, to a standing ovation.
Downey has indicated that his time
in prison changed his political point of view somewhat, saying: "I have a
really interesting political point of view, and it's not always something I say
too loud at dinner tables here, but you can't go from a $2,000-a-night suite at
La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal.
You can't. I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very,
very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics
ever since."
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