Robert Downey Jr Biography

Robert Downey Jr. was born in Manhattan, New York. His father, Robert Downey Sr. is a filmmaker and his mother, Elsie, was an actress. Robert is the younger of two children, and being the child of an independent filmmaker meant that he got into acting from a very young age. He made his debut at the age of 5 in the movie Pound (1970). He continued to work in many of father’s film throughout his youth.

The Downey family moved to England when Robert was just 10 years old. A few years later they moved back to New York. Sadly, his parents got divorced, and Robert chose to be with his father and moved to Los Angeles with him. In Los Angeles, he attended the Santa Monica High School, but dropped out midway, and moved back to New York to pursue a career in acting.

Robert started off with Broadway theatre in a play called American Passion. He also landed a great gig when he became a full time cast member for Saturday Night Live (1985–1986) in 1985. But it did not last very long as the he got fired after the show was going through an overhaul. What the show had given him was exposure with which he managed to land some good supporting roles. He was highly praised for his two supporting roles in Tuff Turf (1985) and Weird Science (1985). All that praise meant that he soon got his first lead role in The Pick-up Artist (1987) opposite Molly Ringwald. Robert again garnered a lot of praise for his role in Less Than Zero (1987). This film’s success opened the gateway to big budget films like Air America (1990) and Soapdish (1991).

There was no doubt that Robert was a very good actor, and this fact was proved when he earned an Oscar award nomination for his role in Chaplin. He played the lead role of Charlie Chaplin; Robert went to great lengths to look and feel the part. He hired a coach to get all of Charlie’s mannerisms right, and even learned to play tennis left handed. His efforts got him the nomination for an Oscar, but he lost out to Al Pacino that year. Now Robert was hot property and the roles started flowing in. But with so much fame comes another side as well, and Robert was about to experience his most public downfall.

In April, 1996, Robert was arrested on drug possession charges and possession of a gun. But this was to be one of the many arrests he would have to face. He was arrested several times later on similar charges, and was put on court ordered probation for three years. During the probationary period, he had to undergo random drug testing. He missed one of his tests and was put behind bars for four months. It got worse for him as he missed another random test and was given a sentence of three-year prison sentence. Though, most of his film work had been wrapped up then, it did cost him a show on NBC, who fired him for not showing up for rehearsals. But he got a lucky break after a judge decided the collective amount he spent in jail qualified him for an early release.

One would have thought all of this would have opened Robert’s eyes by now, but they would have been wrong. He landed a good role on Ally McBeal, and the audience too loved his performance, but his personal struggles continued. He was arrested a couple more times but was let off with a warning. One more major arrest meant that he would have been back in jail, and this time would have had to complete his sentence. Fearing this, his character was taken off the show, and he lost out on few good movies. But all this did not matter to him as his addiction seemed to get worse. Then a breakthrough happened, Robert was found to have been suffering from bipolar disease, the disease made it even harder to beat an addiction. Robert took treatment for the problem and finally beat his addiction.

Now all that was left for him to do was get his career back on track. He landed a lead role in Gothika (2006), the film did well and Robert somewhat got back into the mix. Slowly, he started rebuilding his career with some good performances in good films. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), A Scanner Darkly (2006) and the Zodiac (2007), all the films did well and Robert’s performance was well appreciated. Robert was now ready to get back into the lead roles, and he had just the right one waiting for him. Director Jon Favreau cast him as Tony Stark in the Marvel Comics adaptation of Iron Man. The film was a huge blockbuster and Robert was on his way to the top again. Iron Man made close to $600 million at the box-office and was a worldwide hit. The film’s success spawned another sequel Iron Man 2 that again was a major blockbuster.

Robert’s career was now entering a golden phase. Other than Iron Man, he also delivered another blockbuster in the form of Tropic Thunder. In Tropic Thunder, he actually played the role of a black man. A rough cut of the movie was also shown to the African–American audience, and their reaction was good. Tropic Thunder became another success on his resume. He furthered his success by landing the lead role in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. Result, the same, the film was a hit and a sequel was soon announced. Robert will now been seen in quite a few sequels; Sherlock Holmes 2 and Iron Man 3. He will also be reprising his role of Tony Stark/Iron Man in The Avengers. He was last seen in the hilarious Due Date with Zack Galifianakis.