Robert Downey Jr. Biography

As a youngster, he was afraid of mediocrity rather than of failure, and grabbed life with both hands to pursue his dreams of becoming an actor, determined to succeed. In over three decades in the industry, Downey Jr has come to be recognised as an extremely versatile, not to mention award-winning, actor. Further exploring his musical potential, Downey Jr released his debut album ‘The Futurist’ in 2004.

Robert Downey Junior was born in Greenwich Village, New York, to parents already in the entertainment industry. His father, Robert Downey Senior, was an actor, producer, writer, cinematographer and independent filmmaker, and his mother, Elsie Ford, a singer and dancer. His older sister, Allyson, was born two years before him in 1963. Downey Jr made his film debut at the age of five, cast as a puppy in his father’s film, ‘Pound’ (1970). Next he was given a small role, along with his mother, in another of his father’s films, ‘Greaser’s Palace’ (1972).

The family moved frequently, due to Downey Sr’s work, living in New York, California, Woodstock, Connecticut, Paris and London. Whilst in London, at age ten, Downey Jr attended the Perry House School in Chelsea, where he studied classical ballet. The following year, 1977, his parents divorced. Downey Jr moved to New York with his mother whilst his sister, Allyson, moved with their father to California.

A few years later, Downey Jr joined his father and sister in Los Angeles, where he attended the Santa Monica High school. He immediately joined the school theatre club and was cast in several school productions. Once more in a Downey Sr film, the 15-year-old Downey Jr played a bit part in ‘Up the Academy’ (1980). His passion for acting was growing strong and in 1982, aged 17 and with his father’s permission, he dropped out of high school to become a professional actor.

Downey Jr moved to New York City, where he shared accommodation with his sister, whilst trying to get his acting career started. He took on a number of part-time jobs, including working as a restaurant busboy, working in a shoe store and performing in Soho underground nightclubs as ‘living art’. He had also joined his local theatre group and began to earn roles in off-Broadway theatre productions. An agent finally spotted Downey Jr and arranged for him to audition for Hollywood films.

Initially, Downey Jr found himself cast mainly in school-themed romantic comedies, such as ‘Baby It’s You’ (1983), ‘Firstborn’ (1984), ‘Weird Science’ (1985) and ‘Back to School’ (1986). Expanding into television at the age of 20, in 1985 he joined the cast of the ever-popular television series ‘Saturday Night Live’ (1975), but only for one season.

Downey Jr was offered increasingly substantial roles, alongside A-list actors. He played the lead in ‘The Pick-Up Artist’ (1987) with Molly Ringwald, Dennis Hopper and Harvey Keitel; co-starred with Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O’Neal in ‘Chances Are’ (1989); and starred with Uma Thurman in ‘Johnny Be Good’ (1988).

Finally achieving recognition for his acting, Downey Jr played Julian Wells, a rich college boy addicted to drugs, in ‘Less than Zero’ (1987) to critical acclaim. Shortly after starring with Sally Field and Kevin Kline in ‘Soapdish’ (1991), Downey Jr played the title role in Richard Attenborough’s ‘Chaplin’ (1992) for which he received an Academy Award nomination and won a BAFTA award for Best Actor. The star was beginning to shine.

After a six-week whirlwind romance, Downey Jr married Deborah Falconer on 29th May 1992. The couple had a son, Indio, on 7th September 1993. Downey Jr’s acting dreams were being realised and he began working with respected directors and producers. He starred briefly with his wife in Robert Altman’s collage of everyday Los Angeles life, ‘Short Cuts’ (1993), before being cast in the seminal Quentin Tarantino movie ‘Natural Born Killers’ (1994), directed by Oliver Stone. Proving he was adept at other genres, Downey Jr starred in Michael Hoffman’s period drama, ‘Restoration’ (1995), with Sam Neill and Meg Ryan.

It seemed to all observers that everything was going swimmingly in Downey Jr’s life until in August 1996, age 31, he had his first brush with the law. Initially stopped for speeding, he was promptly arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol as well as possession of heroin and an unloaded firearm. He was remanded to a secure drug rehabilitation centre and given a suspended prison sentence of three years. He was granted permission of bail, with requirements of random drug testing and drug counselling.

Despite the dent to his image, negative press and battling his personal demons, the by now well-respected actor continued to receive offers of film roles, including Robert Altman’s ‘The Gingerbread Man’ (1998) and ‘Wonder Boys’ (2000), in which he played a bisexual literary agent. There was ‘Gothika’ (2003), a horror film with Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz and ‘The Singing Detective’ (2003), produced by Mel Gibson, who also had a supporting role.

The story of Downey Jr’s continuing love affair with drugs and the consequences he faced as a result became what most people wanted to know about this interesting and sometimes enigmatic man. He later claimed it all began when his father offered him a cannabis joint at the tender age of eight.

On the set of the first film after his arrest, ‘Two Girls and a Guy’ (1997), Downey Jr was required to take daily drug tests. Whilst he remained ‘clean’ during filming, he was soon back to his old habits and, on 17th October 1997, he had his probation revoked after continued drug use. In December 1997 he was sentenced to 180 days at the Los Angeles County Jail, for violating probation and missing his mandatory drug tests.

Unable to stay out of trouble, even whilst in prison, Downey Jr was involved in a fight with another inmate on 13th February 1998. On 31st March 1998 he was moved from jail to a drug rehabilitation centre to complete his six-month sentence and provoked a flurry of objections when he was released to work on a film.

On 6th August 1999, Malibu Judge Lawrence Mira claimed to have no other option than to sentence Downey Jr to prison, in order to save his life. Following three violations of probation for drug and alcohol abuse in a three-year span, since 1996, it seemed clear that Downey Jr could not give up his destructive habits on his own. Judge Mira invoked Downey Jr’s three-year suspended sentence and he was moved to a state prison Reception Centre in Wasco, California.

He remained there for a two-week orientation programme before being transferred on 25th August 1999 to a Department of Corrections prison, SATF, the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, for drug dependent prisoners in California. On 2nd August 2000 Downey Jr was released from prison on bail.

In a refreshing boost to both his career and his image, Downey Jr made his primetime television debut in 2000 in the popular Fox series ‘Ally McBeal’ (1997). For the following two years, he played the role of Ally’s attorney boyfriend, Larry Paul, for which he received much critical acclaim. Downey Jr won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for Television; and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Comedy Series. He was also nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Despite his work achievements, Downey Jr could not keep on the right side of the law and was re-arrested on drugs and weapon charges on 25th November 2000. Having received an anonymous tip, police apprehended him at the glamorous Merv Griffin resort in Palm Springs, California. He was searched and found to be in possession of cocaine and diazepam. Proclaiming his innocence, he nonetheless co-operated with the police, was kept overnight in police cells and released on bail the following morning. He was remanded to Wavelengths, a live-in drug rehabilitation centre in Malibu, until his court hearing.

Following the arrest, ‘Ally McBeal’ producer David Kelly dropped Downey Jr from the show on 24th April 2001, claiming he was not being fired but would not be available for filming. On 16th July 2001, Downey Jr was sentenced by Californian Superior Court Judge Randall White to remain in rehabilitation for one year, with three years probation. Judge White reported that Downey Jr appeared to be sincere in his determination to overcome his drug addiction and set another progress hearing for March 2002.

Downey Jr’s somewhat turbulent life and addictive personality had taken its toll on his marriage and on 26th April 2004 he and his wife, Deborah, divorced. Becoming more introspective, Downey Jr turned his attention to writing music. He had already proved to audiences that he could also sing, by performing Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’; ‘Every Breath You Take’ with Sting; and ‘Chances Are’ in a duet with Vonda Shephard. He also sang an original song, ‘Snakes’ on the ‘Ally McBeal’ show, that was released on the ‘Ally McBeal’ ‘For Once in My Life’ (1997) album, as well as writing songs for films. For years, his friends had been begging him to record his own songs and, following his divorce, the time seemed right for Downey Jr to finally do just that.

Heading for the studio, Downey Jr recorded his debut album, ‘The Futurist’, released in November 2004 on Sony’s Classical label. The album consisted of eight original tunes, as well as two unforgettable covers, of Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Smile’ and ‘Your Move’ by Yes. Incredibly proud of his achievement, Downey Jr also designed the cover for the album, which, in his own words, is in the music style of “highbrow pop with jazz and classical influences”.

Having met his second wife, producer, Susan Levin, on the set of ‘Gothika’ (2003), Downey Jr proposed to her on her 30th birthday. They were married in a Jewish ceremony on 27th August 2005 in New York. The couple enjoyed a lavish wedding reception, with Sting and Billy Idol performing for their guests, and are still happily married and living in Los Angeles.

His life finally back on track and his addictions a thing of the past, Downey Jr’s more recent films have included playing a thief posing as an actor in ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ (2005), with Val Kilmer; ‘Good Night and Good Luck’ (2005), directed by George Clooney; and crime drama ‘A Guide to Recognising Your Saints’ (2006) in which he both played a role and co-produced. Futuristic animated drama ‘A Scanner Darkly’ (2006), co–starring Keanu Reaves, was followed by ‘Zodiac’ (2007), David Fincher’s thriller based on the true story of the infamous San Francisco Zodiac serial killer, co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffolo.

Later, Downey Jr starred in ‘Charlie Bartlett’, a comedy drama in which Downey Jr plays the somewhat jaded Principal Gardner at a wealthy public school; ‘Tropic Thunder’, a Ben Stiller comedy starring Stiller and Jack Black and ‘The Soloist’, a fact-based drama about a violin prodigy.

It seems that this talented but troubled man has reached a point in his life where he is able to balance acting success and other creative outlets with a happy and drug-free personal life - he has worked hard to achieve this. Downey Jr sums it up succinctly, “You can make miraculous recoveries from seemingly hopeless situations if you put your mind to it and you have enough support. I think it’s the process of maturing.”

With a relatively quiet private life of late, Downey Jr has focused on his craft, and as a result has starred in some of the biggest films of the last four years.

Probably most notable is his portrayal of multi-millionaire playboy Tony Stark in the film adaption of Marvel's comic book hero 'Iron Man'. Not just playing the character in the title trilogy, the star also reprised the role for 2012’s 'The Avengers' and its sequel.

An adaption of 'Sherlock Holmes' (2009), with Downey Jr in the lead role, secured him firmly in his place at the top of the box office, grossing $62.3million (£40million) in its opening weekend. The sequel 'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows' was released in late 2011.

Meanwhile, comedy 'Due Date' (2010), in which he starred alongside 'The Hangover' breakout star Zach Galifinakis, allowed a return to his comedy roots, which turned out to be a hit with the audience.

For now, Robert Downey Jr should never be far from our screens, with his position set firm in two of Hollywood’s biggest growing franchises.

From All Movie Guide: Hailed by many critics as one of the most brilliant and versatile actors of his generation, Robert Downey Jr. chalked up a formidable onscreen track record that quickly launched the young thesp into the stratosphere. Although, for a time, Downey's stormy offscreen life and personal problems threatened to challenge his public image, he quickly bounced back and overcame these setbacks, with a continued array of impressive roles on the big and small screens that never sacrificed his audience appeal or affability.

The son of underground filmmaker Robert Downey, Downey Jr. was born in New York City on April 4, 1965. He made his first onscreen appearance at the age of five, as a puppy in his father's film Pound (1970). Between 1972 and 1990, he made cameo appearances in five more of his father's films. The actor's first significant role, in 1983's Baby, It's You, largely ended up on the cutting-room floor; it wasn't until two years later that he began landing more substantial parts, first as a one-season cast member on Saturday Night Live and then in the comedy Weird Science. In 1987, he landed plum roles in two films that capitalized on the Brat Pack phenomenon, James Toback's The Pick-Up Artist, (opposite Molly Ringwald), and Less Than Zero, for which he won acclaim playing cocaine addict Julian Wells.

Through it all, Downey cultivated an enviable instinct for role (and script) selection. His turns in Emile Ardolino's classy reincarnation fantasy Chances Are (1989), Michael Hoffman's Soapdish (1992), Robert Altman's Short Cuts (as the Iago-like Hollywood makeup artist Bill Bush), and Richard Loncraine's Richard III (1995) wowed viewers around the world, and often, on those rare occasions when Downey did choose substandard material, such as the lead in Richard Attenborough's deeply flawed Chaplin (1992), or an Australian media parasite in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), his performance redeemed it. In fact, critics deemed Downey's portrayal as one of the only worthwhile elements in the Chaplin biopic, and it earned the thesp a Best Actor Oscar nomination, as well as Golden Globe and British Academy Award noms.

Around this time, Downey's personal life took a turn for the worse. In June 1996, the LAPD arrested the actor (who had already spent time in three rehabilitation facilities between 1987 and 1996) on counts including drug use, driving under the influence, possession of a concealed weapon, and possession of illegal substances, a development which struck many as ironic, given his star-making performance years prior in Less Than Zero. A month after this arrest, police found Downey Jr. unconscious on a neighbor's lawn, under the influence of a controlled substance, and authorities again incarcerated him, taking him -- this time -- to a rehab center. A third arrest soon followed, as did another stint in rehab. His stay in rehab didn't last long, as he walked out, thereby violating the conditions of his bail. More arrests and complications followed -- in fact, the actor had to be released from rehab to make James Toback's Two Girls and a Guy -- but he still landed a few screen appearances and won praise for his work in Mike Figgis' One Night Stand (1997) and Altman's otherwise-disappointing Gingerbread Man (1998). In addition, he starred in one of his father's films, the offbeat Hugo Pool (1997). In 1999, he had three films out in theaters: Friends and Lovers, Bowfinger, and In Dreams. He delivered a particularly chilling performance in the latter, as longhaired psychopathic child murderer Vivian Thompson, that arguably ranked with his finest work. But Downey's problems caught up with him again that same year, when he was re-arrested and sentenced to 12 months in a state penitentiary.

These complications led to the actor's removal from the cast of the summer 2001 Julia Roberts/Billy Crystal comedy America's Sweethearts and his removal from a stage production of longtime friend Mel Gibson's {+Hamlet}, although a memorably manic performance in Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys made it to the screen in 2000. Downey's decision -- after release -- to pursue television work, with a recurring role on Ally McBeal, marked a brief comeback (he won a 2001 Best TV Series Supporting Actor Golden Globe for the performance). Nevertheless, series creator David E. Kelley and the show's other producers sacked Downey permanently when two additional arrests followed. During this period, Downey also allegedly dated series star Calista Flockhart.

In 2002, a Riverside, CA, judge dismissed all counts against Downey. In time, the former addict counseled other celebrity addicts and became something of a spokesperson for rehabilitation. He starred as a hallucination-prone novelist in The Singing Detective in 2003, and while the film didn't achieve mainstream success, critics praised Downey for his interpretation of the role, alongside Oscar winners Adrien Brody and Mel Gibson. The same could be said for Gothika (2003), the psychological thriller that placed him opposite Hollywood heavyweight Halle Berry. In 2004, Downey appeared in Steven Soderbergh's portion of the film Eros.

Downey achieved success throughout 2005 with appearances in George Clooney's critically lauded Good Night, and Good Luck -- as one of Ed Murrow's underlings -- and he paired up with Val Kilmer in Shane Black's directorial debut Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. He continued balancing more mainstream fare, such as Disney's Shaggy Dog remake, with challenging films such as Richard Linklater's rotoscoped adaptation A Scanner Darkly. That same year, Downey wrapped production on Hanson's Lucky You, the story of a card shark (Eric Bana) who faces off against his father (Robert Duvall) at the legendary World Series of Poker, while simultaneously attempting to woo a beautiful singer (Drew Barrymore).

Downey continued to show his versatility by joining the casts of Zodiac, David Fincher's highly-touted film about the Zodiac Killer, and the Diane Arbus biopic Fur, with Nicole Kidman. A supporting role in Jon Poll's 2007 directorial debut Charlie Bartlett followed. The biggest was yet to come, however, as 2007 found Downey taking on the roles that would make him an even bigger star than he'd been in his youth, as he took on the leading role of sarcastic billionaire and part-time super hero Tony Stark in the big screen adaptation of the comic book Iron Man, as well as self-important actor Kirk Lazarus in the comedy Tropic Thunder. Both films turned out to be not just blockbuster successes at the box office, but breakaway hits with critics as well, and in addition to major praise, the actor also walked away from 2008 with an Oscar nomination for his performance in Tropic Thunder.

After Iron Man premiered, Marvel studios decided to move forward with a film empire, and Downey's Tony Stark became the anchor of the series, starring in his own Iron Man trilogy and appearing in many other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe like the Avengers (2012) and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014). Downey still found time to appear in side projects, like The Judge (2014), which he also produced. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Robert Downey, Jr., son of the avid filmmaker Robert Downey, Sr., is an American actor famous for his brilliant acting in ‘Chaplin’, quirky version of ‘Tony Stark’ in ‘Iron Man’ and decades of living under the shadow of drug abuse and breaching of law. Downey was involved in professional acting and drugs consumption from a very young age, owing to his highly creative and addicted father. He has spent his life in and out of tabloids, rehabilitation centers and prisons and yet, his acting skills and talent has given him the status of one of the most cherished actors. His fans love him for the dark and strong characters that he has played from time to time in movies like: ‘Sherlock Holmes’, ‘Tropical Thunder’, etc. and also for his almost superhero like ability to bring himself out from the rut of drugs and alcohol binging that he had been a part of since childhood. Downey has been recognized for his contribution to cinema with awards like Golden Globe, BAFTA and Emmy. He is also the co-owner of the production company ‘Team Downey’, with his wife Susan Levin.


Robert Downey, Jr. was born on April 4, 1965 in Manhattan, New York, to Robert Downey, Sr. and Elsie. His father is a well-known film maker, actor, writer, director and his mother was an actress. From a very young age, Downey was involved in acting.
He did his first appearance in his father’s movie ‘Pound’, in which he played the role of a puppy. Downey grew up around drugs as his father was a drug addict. He started taking marijuana at the tender age of 6.
At the age of 7, he made an appearance in the movie called ‘Greaser’s Palace’ and later went to live in England to study classical ballet. He attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in New York.
In 1978, at the age of 13, Downey’s parents got divorced and he went to California to live with his father. He dropped out of school in the pursuit of professional acting. He was still struggling with his drug addiction.

From 1983-1986, Downey did an off-Broadway musical ‘American Passion (1983)’ and was cast to be a part of ‘Saturday Night Live (1985)’. He also did ‘Turf Turf (1985)’, John Hughes’s sci-fi comedy ‘Weird Science (1985)’ and ‘Pretty in Pink (1986)’.
Downey did his first lead role in ‘The Pick-up Artist’ in 1987 and did ‘Less Than Zero’ in the same year, in which he played a drug-addicted rich young boy. He was started to be recognized as a member of ‘Brat Pack’.
In 1989, Downey did a romantic comedy called ‘Chances Are’, starring along with Cybill Shepherd, Ryan O’Neal and Mary Stuart Masterson. It was followed by ‘Air America (1990)’, in which he starred with Mel Gibson and ‘Soapdish (1991)’with Sally Field.
Downey did the most famous role of his lifetime in Richard Attenborough’s ‘Chaplin’ in 1992. He played the role of ‘Charlie Chaplin’ in the movie and prepared extensively for his role and won an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA Award for it.
From 1993-1999, he did commercial movies like: ‘Heart and Souls (1993)’, ‘Shortcuts (1993)’, ‘Only You (1994)’, ‘Natural Born Killers (1994)’, ‘Restoration (1995)’, ‘Richard III (1995)’, ‘Two Girls and a Guy (1998)’ and ‘Black and White (1999)’.
Downey did a psychological thriller in 1999 called ‘In Dreams’, in which he starred with Annette Bening. It was his last movie that he completed before going to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison to serve his drug charges.
In 2000, after his release, he joined the cast of an American legal comedy-drama television series called ‘Ally McBeal’. He was nominated for an Emmy Award and won a Golden Globe in the category of the Best Supporting Actor in a mini-series.
He lip-synched Elton John’s ‘I want Love’ for its video in 2001, directed by Sam Taylor-Wood. In the following year, he got the lead role in ‘The Singing Detective’ with the help of Mel Gibson who paid his insurance bond.
In 2003, Downey did a supernatural thriller ‘Gothika’ along with Halle Berry, which was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. He withheld 40 percent of Downey’s salary to make sure that his addictive behavior does not hamper the production of the movie.
Downey did leading and supporting roles in movies like ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’¬¬, which was a George Clooney directorial venture, ‘Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus’, ‘Scanner Darkly’ and ‘A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints’, throughout 2005-2006.
Around same time, he did commercial movies that made him more prominent in the industry: ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), which was a crime-comedy starring Val Kilmer. He also did ‘The Shaggy Dog (2006)’ and ‘The Zodiac (2007)’.
In 2008, Downey gave his first major blockbuster hits like: ‘Tropic Thunder’, an action comedy in which he starred with Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux and ‘Iron Man’ in which he played the memorable and quirky role of ‘Tony Stark’.
He appeared in drama film called ‘The Soloist’ in 2009, starring along with Jamie Fox, based on a book by Steve Lopez. He also did the British-American action mystery film, ‘Sherlock Holmes’, around same time.
Reviving his role of ‘Tony Stark’ in the sequel ‘Iron Man 2’ in 2010, Downey again became a part of the Marvel studios film project. The movie was released in 54 countries and grossed 623.9 million US dollars.
‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’, a continuation of ‘Sherlock Holmes (2009)’ was released in 2011. He starred along with Jude Law and Jarred Harris in the movie and despite of its topnotch cast, the film did not do very well.
In 2012, ‘The Avengers’ a superhero film was released, which was based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. Downey starred in this massive project along with Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, etc.
Another ‘Iron Man’ movie ‘Iron Man 3’ was released in 2013 in which Downey’s character was shown to be going through posttraumatic stress disorder. He starred in the movie along with Gwyneth Paltrow, Rebecca Hall, etc.


Previously known to be a talented yet troubled actor because of his involvement with drugs, Robert John Downey Jr. fabulously has risen from his downfall to once more shine in the spotlight as one of the finest thespians of his generation. A son of independent filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. and actress Elsie Ford, acting inevitably has become an inseparable part in Robert's life from the day he was born on April 4, 1965 in New York City. Gradually getting familiar with show business supported by his mother's influence, surely it did not take a long time for him to develop a fascination in performing, even to begin his initial step in the field, thanks to his father's decision to include him in his 1970 effort of "Pound" at a mere age of 5. The fact that he had to live in different places like Connecticut, Paris, Woodstock, London, and California due to Downey Sr.'s profession apparently did not prevent him to nurture his interest for the boy then enthusiastically joined the Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts summer camp, to hone his skills in portraying characters, improvisation, also vocal technique.

Entering his early teen, Robert was forced to face the divorce of his parents in 1978, followed by the departure of his father also sister Allyson to California as he chose to remain with his mother in New York. However, the teen later decided to rejoin them four years later and entered the state's Santa Monica High School where he frequently was selected to perform in its stage productions. By this time, his desire to pursue an acting career had become really hard to resist so that he recklessly left his study earlier upon Downey Sr.'s approval before headed back to New York to start working his path in the entertainment world. After a handful of small parts in productions of either local or off-Broadway theaters, including those of "American Passion" and "Alms for the Middle Class", a good chance struck him when an agent who spotted his potentiality helped him to try out for film auditions in Los Angeles.

Managed to obtain his first credited role in Rosanna Arquette's vehicle of "Baby It's You" (1983), Robert moved forward to grab a bigger turn in "Firstborn" (1984) in which he shared the screen with Sarah Jessica Parker whom he dated shortly thereafter. Also appeared in "Weird Science", "Tuff Turf", plus "Mussolini:


The Untold Story" throughout 1985, this brown-eyed guy then made his way to hit higher when he successfully impressed the casting panel of "Saturday Night Live" (1975) and in consequence became the show's member for one season. Lucky for him, one of his performances there attracted director James Toback who subsequently gave him the second billing to play the male lead in his 1986 picture, "The Pick-Up Artist", alongside Molly Ringwald and Dennis Hopper. It was such a relief for the struggling actor as the flick not only enabled him to gain audience's notice but also served as a good stepping-stone to secure a challenging role of Julian Wells in "Less Than Zero" (1987).

Wonderfully delivered a compelling dramatic enactment in that feature of Marek Kanievska, Robert in turn received huge praise from critics which unmistakably brought him to more public attention and exposure, leading him to land major roles in "Rented Lips" (1988), "True Believer" (1989), "Air America" (1990), also "Soapdish" (1991). By this time, his relationship with Sarah did not run well enough for them to keep staying on each other's side so that he finally ended the romance in August 1991 to afterwards grow a new love in model-turned-actress Deborah Falconer thus married her joyously by 1992, the same year his next film, "Chaplin", saw its release. It was through this particular picture that he eventually came to the highlight of his career when it directed him to get a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role category at Academy Awards and another of Golden Globe Awards in Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama along with the Best Actor title at BAFTA Awards in 1993.

Completed his accomplishment with the arrival of his son, Indio, on September 7, 1993, Robert firmly maintained his status in Hollywood during half of the '90s, starring in a series of high-profile movies, like "Short Cuts" (1993), "Natural Born Killers" (1994), "Richard III" (1995), and "Restoration" (1995). Sadly, the glory he encountered on screen was tainted by his awful behavior in real life, especially that of his dependence on drugs, as he got arrested for possessing Mexican black tar heroin, crack, cocaine also an unloaded .357 Magnum revolver while driving in intoxicated condition in June 1996. Sentenced to three years probation, he instead ended up in jail for six months after a Malibu municipal judge declared him guilty

ery now and then, you just need to ride. I’m shotgun with Robert Downey Jr., the world’s highest-paid actor, strapped in the passenger seat of his black ‘65 Corvette, which, top down, flashes through the sparse weekday traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway, Point Dume jutting into the sea. He’s talking about a special afternoon, years ago, during the filming of Up the Academy, a classic bit of late-70s raunch directed by his father, Robert Downey Sr. “Salina, Kansas, that’s where we were shooting,” says Jr., lingering on the word “Salina,” with its resonance of an older, purer America. “I had a little Honda scooter in Salina, a tiny thing, not even a motorcycle, because I wasn’t old enough to drive, and one day, a girl in the movie, Stacey Nelkin, a natural beauty with an unbelievable rack, asked me to ride her from the set back to the hotel where we were staying, and she got behind me, and snuggled up and pressed against me the whole way. I won’t say it made me want to be an actor, but that ride did change my life. Utterly and completely.”

Downey, 49, in sunglasses and baseball hat, oblivious to the look that registers on the face of each driver he leaves behind—son of a bitch, I’ve just been dusted by Iron Man!—is behaving like a movie star. Which is a good thing. For a while back there, in case you weren’t paying attention, he wasn’t a movie star. He was a convict, or, to quote Hank Williams, a number, not a name. Inmate P50522. A cog in the penal system. After a succession of arrests (getting wasted, getting busted, ditching rehab), he’d been sent to the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, in Corcoran, California. High minimum-security. But this was Robert Downey Jr., meaning that the time in stir was, for him, more productive than 10 semesters with Strasberg. Not only did it afford him a helpful glimpse of his professional mortality, it put him in touch with the bedrock truth, aged him like leather, lending his work, which has always been prized, a new depth. You enjoy him as you enjoy middle-aged, post-Ava Gardner Sinatra. It’s not just the song you hear, but the entire life, the story of the man who’s been up and down and is up again: riding high in April, shot down in May, back on top in June. If you watch the movies he’s made since regaining his freedom, you realize that the best of them play as retellings of his own story: death and rebirth, a journey through a nighttime world, redemption. The prime example is Iron Man, mega-hit and sequels, which is tabloid Downey turned into parable: Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist, a man of private jets, drunken sprees, supermodels, is led, by his arrogance, down the wrong path. His car is set upon by terrorists, just as the Malibu sheriffs once set upon another car in the hills. He makes a run for it, in his suit, but is caught, shackled, beaten, and confined to a cave where the only natural thing to do is die. But he doesn’t die. He’s rejuvenated. He comes out like a man from a cannon, in a suit of armor, devastating his enemies. He’s returned to his old life, only now, like a hero in a folktale, understands it for the first time.


“Job one is get out of that cave,” Downey told me. “A lot of people do get out but don’t change. So the thing is to get out and recognize the significance of that aggressive denial of your fate, come through the crucible forged into a stronger metal. Or whatever. But I don’t even know if that was my experience. It’s funny: five years ago, I would’ve made it sound like I’m conscious of my own participation in seizing the similarities. But so many things have become less certain. I swear to God. I am not my story.”

In this way, Robert Downey Jr. enters his third incarnation. In the first, he was a wunderkind of Brat Pack movies, the kid who could assume any form, play any role. In the second, after returning from prison, he re-invented a genre and re-filled the coffers. In the third, which begins now, he’s a producer and filmmaker, the co-head, with his wife, Susan Downey, of his own production company, Team Downey, which this month debuts its first feature, The Judge. In it, Downey plays prodigal son to Robert Duvall, who stands for all those fathers who find us wanting.

“It was the least likely first Team Downey project, but there was something in the process that was so provocative,” Downey said. “I’d find myself tearing up during every work session, because of constellations being lit by the subject matter, this idea of going home, what it is to return, fractured relationships, the drama of it. It was a big experiment—with Susan’s cred and my bit of leverage. How do we do it when we get the opportunity? O.K., here’s all the rope, guys.

“Judge for yourself,” says Downey, putting the hammer down. There’s a hesitation, then the car launches, blasted to ludicrous speed, speedometer climbing. “Duvall would call this car a bombproof horse. That means, a bomb goes off and the horse does not flinch. The only problem is stopping. If a car pulls short in front of us . . . Well, we can go to heaven holding hands.”

He slows, takes a sharp turn, follows a road to his house. A gate, a camera, a wave of the hand. We coast across gravel, past a giant letter R, placed in the lawn like a bit of Pop art. As Yankee Stadium was the house that Ruth built, this is the house that Iron Man built. Robert and Susan purchased it not long after the grosses came in—seven acres above the Pacific. It rambles in a midcentury way. Downey lives with his wife and two-and-a-half-year-old son, Exton, as well as a coffee machine and cats. Two of them. Incredibly furry. He has a chef and a handful of assistants, including a do-everything body man, blue-eyed Jimmy Rich, who has “Iron Man” tattooed on his calf. (Hope he never gets fired.) Downey has tattoos of his own, including “Suzie Q” on his shoulder, in tribute to his wife.

He leads me inside, sits me in the kitchen, and makes me coffee. It’s strong and delicious. We drink as we talk. It’s always jarring to meet a star in person. Here’s someone you’ve seen only in two dimensions, as in a dream, suddenly experienced right here, right now, as real as that big letter R on the lawn. Many times, the real person can’t live up to the image. It’s a letdown. You’re sad. Noticing this, they get sad. Then everyone is sad. But it’s not the case with Downey, who retains his big-screen aura. Which is why he tests so well. He’s got a nearly one-to-one street-to-screen ratio: what you see up there is pretty much what you get down here. Of course, you know what he looks like. Medium-size, skinny, olive-skinned, thick-haired, big-eyed, handsome, even elegant, but not too handsome, and not too elegant. If I were to draw him as a cartoon, he’d be surrounded by jagged lines. That’s his energy. Even in person, you behold him as if through tinted glasses. A moment before you remember his battle with addiction, you think, Man, it’d be fun to get fucked up with this guy.

I asked about his life, his childhood, being a parent, his addiction issues. Each question brought 5 or 10 minutes of discursive talk. Deep meanings. Eternal things. When I asked about his early artistic influences, he said, “I was this far away from a black-and-white TV on University Place. It felt like I was born there. I was raised by a black-and-white RCA TV. Rod Serling. Bill Shatner. Hogan’s Heroes and Gilligan’s Island. The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. Antonio Fargas, on Starsky & Hutch and in Putney Swope. Alan Arbus and Hervé Villechaize, in Greaser’s Palace and on Fantasy Island.”

There’s something both manic and soothing in the way he speaks, the ease of it, how he jumps from topic to topic. Everything reminds him of everything.

When I asked about his father, his face lit up. “If you recall, the first round of really cool head-shop T-shirts—forget the Scott Baio tuxedo shirt—I’m talking about the Superman logo. I remember walking around the Village with my dad wearing a Superman shirt. We also had a prop king’s chair, a throne, that he would sit in.” “He was Superman and he was ruling?”

“Yeah. And he was a big guy, tall, dark, handsome—all that stuff.”

“It sounds like you had an interesting childhood.”

“Interesting is correct,” said Downey. “I’ve heard of people that had impossible-to-defend childhoods, and I say, ‘You had an interesting childhood.’ And occasionally it’s the folks who have had the most quote-unquote interesting childhoods and the most here-come-the-sirens idiosyncratic dispositions who push [the boundaries]. It’s amazing how many world leaders and icons were psychotic, or had breakdowns or whatever.”

Robert Downey Sr. made groundbreaking movies, many of them of the art-house variety. At his peak, in the 1970s, when Jr. was impressionable and small, Sr. was at the center of a creative scene, making Jr. the kid wandering among drunken adults. His mom, Elsie Downey, was a writer and actress. There was a divorce. Downey followed his parents from place to place, living, variously, in Forest Hills, London, Santa Monica, the Lower East Side, Greenwich Village. We discussed the word “peripatetic,” which we agreed was perfect. He likened himself to an army brat, only his father’s war was to get green-lighted, start casting. In New York and Los Angeles, Jr. was at some of the greatest parties of the 70s. It accelerated him, one incident at a time, toward knowledge, adulthood, the most famous being the night he shared a joint with his old man. He was six or seven. In this way, Downey was introduced to showbiz as the child of a mobster would be introduced to The Life.

From the start, acting was a natural thing, separated from everyday walking around by the flimsiest of curtains. He turned up in his father’s movies, first in Pound. He was five years old. He played a puppy. Then in Greaser’s Palace, a cult classic, when he was seven. When I asked Downey how he had learned his craft, he said, “Doing little one-acts at the Stage Door. Or from Mr. Jellison, the theater-arts teacher at Santa Monica High School. Or Ramon Estevez, the middle brother of Charlie and Emilio, who taught me how to tap-dance for Oklahoma. Before I came west, at middle school, Simon Baruch, East 21st and Second, we did Hair.” In this way, he came on the scene as you enter a lake—slowly, little by little, then all at once, so that, by the time he made his first big splash, he seemed at once brand-new and as if he’d been around forever. He worked for John Hughes in Weird Science and with Sarah Jessica Parker in Firstborn and Girls Just Want to Have Fun; they dated for years. He was a featured player on Saturday Night Live, part of the ill-fated 1985 cast that included Randy Quaid and Joan Cusack. He acted with Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School. But that big splash came in 1987, as the lead in Jim Toback’s The Pick-Up Artist and then as Julian, the romantic, drug-addled lost boy in the film based on Bret Easton Ellis’s novel Less than Zero. Which was tough. I mean, here was a character that millions of people had already imagined. But Downey seemed to re-write the book, replacing Ellis’s story with his own. At some point, Julian, wasted party boy, product of radical West Coast excess, morphed into Downey, spawn of Hollywood, drugs, movies, and the rest of it.

That performance defined his early career. How he exposed himself, seemed to open his life to scrutiny. This is when critics began referring to him as the most talented of his generation. A cataract of movies followed, each resulting in another chapter, another friendship, story, or lesson. He starred in 1969 with Kiefer Sutherland, who shared a house with Downey for three years, sons of the Old Guard, tearing through late-80s Hollywood. In Air America, he played opposite Mel Gibson, who remembers Downey’s manic energy, “stuff he did in the makeup chair. He’d get the newspaper and riff on the political comment and do it in rhyming couplets. That’s what his mind is like. It’s a wonder he didn’t damage it more.” They’ve remained friends in every kind of weather. In 2011, when Gibson presented Downey with a trophy at the American Cinematheque Awards, Downey talked about Gibson instead of himself, saying, “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 his trespasses, offering him the same clean slate you have me and allowing him to continue his great and ongoing contribution to our collective art without shame.”

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 III (1995), co-starring Ian McKellen and Annette Bening; and the Jodie Foster-directed Home for the Holidays, also starring Holly Hunter.