American actor Robert John Downey Jr. was born on April 4, 1965. He is one of the highest-grossing performers of all time, with a total of more than $14 billion from his feature films. Time magazine ranked Downey among the world's 100 most important people in 2008. Forbes named him the highest-paid actor in Hollywood from 2013 to 2015.
Playing the lead role in his father Robert Downey Sr.'s 1970 picture Pound, Downey made his acting debut when he was just five years old. The teen flicks Weird Science (1985) and Less than Zero (1987) featured him among the Brat Pack. Downey received his first Oscar nomination and a BAFTA for his performance as Charlie Chaplin in the 1992 movie Chaplin. After doing time for drug charges at the Corcoran Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, he returned to television in 2000 as Ally McBeal, a role for which he went on to win a Golden Globe. Additional drug accusations led to Downey's 2001 dismissal from the show. He remained sober since 2003 after completing a court-mandated drug treatment program.
In 2003, Downey made his acting return in The Singing Detective. After that, he starred in the black comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), the thriller Zodiac (2007), and the action comedy Tropic Thunder (2008). Mel Gibson paid his insurance bond because completion bond companies wouldn't insure him. From 2008's Iron Man all the way up to 2019's Avengers: Endgame, Downey became famous throughout the world as Iron Man in 10 MCU features. Both the 2009 and 2011 sequels to Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes had him as the eponymous hero. The role earned him his second Golden Globe.
Oppenheimer (2023), in which Downey played Lewis Strauss, earned him an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. His other serious roles include The Judge (2014) and Oppenheimer. He debuted on Broadway the same year, playing the lead in Ayad Akhtar's McNeal, and he received a Primetime Emmy nomination for his work in the black comedy miniseries The Sympathizer (2024).
**Early years**
Robert John Downey Jr., the youngest sibling, came into this world in New York City on April 4, 1965. Elsie Ann (née Ford), who was an actress who had roles in the films of Robert Downey Sr., the filmmaker who was his father, was the child's mother. Her mother's family tree included Scots, Germans, and Swiss, while Downey's father was Jewish. His paternal ancestors were from Hungary.
In the course of his father's film ventures, Downey's family lived in a number of different locations, including Woodstock, Greenwich Village, London, New Mexico, California, and Connecticut. As the fortunes of the family rose and fell with the fortunes of the films, they lived through times of extreme poverty and plenty. Growing up, Downey was "surrounded by drugs." Both of his parents struggled with substance abuse. His father granted him permission to experiment with narcotics when he was young; he gave Downey his first hit of marijuana when he was six years old and cocaine when he was a kid. It was something his father expressed sorrow over later on. "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." Drug usage formed an emotional tie between Downey and his father, who he first used with him when he was eight years old.
Even as a little boy, Downey appeared in cameos in his father's movies. In the absurdist comedy Pound (1970), he played a sick puppy when he was five years old, and in the surrealist Western Greaser's Palace (1972), he was seven years old. Between the ages of eleven and twelve, he attended Stagedoor Manor, an acting camp in upstate New York. At the age of twelve, Downey's parents filed for a divorce in 1977. Following the divorce, he moved in with his mom in a fifth-floor New York apartment because she "needed" him, although his sister stayed with their dad in California. Downey moved back with his dad after a while and started Santa Monica High School, although he didn't finish until 1982. His full-time acting career began when he returned to New York at the age of seventeen. For financial support throughout his audition season, Downey cleared tables at Central Falls, worked at a shoe store, and was a "living art" performer at the nightclub Area. As for Downey, he landed little roles in off-Broadway and regional theater. Despite having his sequences chopped, he made his feature debut in the 1983 picture Baby It's You.
Working Life
From 1983 until 1995, I received critical praise for my early work.
Beginning in 1983 with a three-week run of Alms for the Middle Class at the Geva Theatre Center, Downey began to expand upon his performances in theater. In 1983, he was also a cast member of Norman Lear's American Passion, an off-Broadway musical that ran at the Joyce Theater for a brief run. Sarah Jessica Parker and Robert Downey began dating in 1984, after Downey landed a role in the film Firstborn. He joined Saturday Night Live's younger, fresher ensemble in 1985. According to Downey, he was able to gain the audition thanks to Anthony Michael Hall, a buddy he made on the set of his Weird Science. A year of low ratings and complaints about the new cast's humorous abilities led to his and most of the new crew's dismissal and replacement. The "Downey Fail sums up everything that makes SNL great," according to Rolling Stone, which declared Downey the worst cast member of Saturday Night Live throughout the show's history.
Playing a sidekick to James Spader in Tuff Turf and a bully in John Hughes's Weird Science both occurred that year, marking Downey's dramatic acting debut. Even though Molly Ringwald begged John Hughes to cast him as Duckie in Pretty in Pink (1986), the character ultimately went to Jon Cryer. The Pick-up Artist (1987) was his first leading role, and he co-starred alongside Ringwald. People sometimes refer to Downey as a Brat Pack member because of these and his other coming-of-age films from the 1980s. Billy Zane, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kiefer Sutherland were Downey's housemates when he relocated to Hollywood (1988). Zane would go on to star with Downey in Only You (1994).
Based on the novel Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, Downey portrayed the role of Julian Wells in the 1987 film adaptation, a drug-addled wealthy youth whose life quickly goes out of hand. Janet Maslin of The New York Times characterized his portrayal as "desperately moving," and he received tremendous praise for it. However, Downey has admitted that, because to his drug problem, he became a "exaggeration of the character" in real life, and therefore "the role was like the ghost of Christmas Future" for him. After finishing filming, Downey checked into rehab for the first time; this was the first of several interventions and stays in treatment that he would endure in the decade leading up to his 1996 arrest. Following Zero, Downey landed roles in more financially and critically successful films, such as Chances Are (1989), Air America (1990), and Soapdish (1991), which featured Cybill Shepherd, Ryan O'Neal, Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Cathy Moriarty, and Whoopi Goldberg.
He learned to play the violin and tennis left-handed in preparation for his 1992 portrayal as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin. To perfect his impersonation of Chaplin, he worked with a personal coach. Despite losing out to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, Downey received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor at the 65th Academy Awards ceremony for the performance. He was also the subject of a documentary about the 1992 presidential elections called The Last Party (1993) and had appearances in the 1993 films Heart and Souls (starring Kyra Sedgwick and Alfre Woodard) and Short Cuts (starring Matthew Modine and Julianne Moore). Along with Woody Harrelson, he was in the 1994 picture Only You, which featured Marisa Tomei. He went on to play the role of Special Agent John Royce in U.S. in future films such as Restoration(1995), Richard III(1995), Home for the Holidays(1995), and Two Girls and a Guy (1997). White and Marshals (1998) and Black and White (1999).
From 1996 until 2001, Ally McBeal and difficulties connected to addiction
Various drug-related crimes, including those involving cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, led to Downey's multiple arrests between 1996 and 2001. He served time in both county jail and prison while undergoing drug treatment programs. As he told a judge in 1999, "It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth, and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal." He said that his father had started giving him narcotics when he was eight years old, which led to his addiction.
Sean Penn and Dennis Quaid were worried about Downey and went to his house in early 1996 to take him to a Tucson treatment clinic; but, Downey escaped and checked himself out a few days later. Police pulled Downey down in June 1996 as he was driving down Sunset Boulevard for a variety of charges, including possession of heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, and an unloaded.357 Magnum pistol. Months later, when out on parole, he slept on one of the beds after sneaking into a neighbor's house through the unlocked front door while high. Instead of pressing trespassing charges, the family chose not to. A recording of the neighbor's 911 call went viral, and the "Goldilocks incident" was born. His sentence included a three-year probationary period, mandatory drug testing, and further six months of live-in treatment following his stint in court-ordered rehab in November 1996. After failing a court-mandated drug test in 1997, he served a six-month sentence in Los Angeles County prison. He was required by the court to complete a 120-day rehabilitation program after his release.
Even though Downey was sober while filming Wonder Boys in 1999, he relapsed the next year. At the same time, he had lost his Malibu home and was drowning in legal costs. A second arrest occurred in 1999 after Downey failed yet another mandatory drug test. Even though Robert Shapiro, Downey's attorney, put together the same legal team that had ably represented O. Downey received a three-year jail sentence at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State jail in Corcoran, California, for his role in the murder trial of J. Simpson. As of Downey's arrest, all of his cinematic projects had finished production and were nearing release. His failure to show up for rehearsals led to his dismissal from his role as the devil on the NBC cartoon series God, the Devil, and Bob.
A judge unexpectedly released Downey from prison after he had spent nearly a year there on condition of posting $5,000 bail. This was due to his cumulative time in prison, which began with his arrests in 1996. Just one week following his 2000 release, Downey became a regular on the popular TV show Ally McBeal, portraying a new romantic interest. Both the Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series went to him. The former honored him with a nomination, while the latter went to him with a win. In an episode of the show, he sang a duet of "Every Breath You Take" with Sting and was also a writer and vocalist on Vonda Shepard's CD, Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life. "It was my lowest point in terms of addictions. At that stage, I didn't give a fuck whether I ever acted again." Back in January 2001, Downey was supposed to play Hamlet in a stage production in Los Angeles directed by Mel Gibson, but he said that the series' apparent success was an exaggeration of his performances.
Officers responding to an anonymous 911 call searched Downey's room at Merv Griffin's Hotel and Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs, California, on Thanksgiving 2000, leading to his arrest just before the first season of Ally McBeal came to a close. Possession of valium and cocaine put Downey in a controlled drug intoxicated state. Following the events of the weekend, Rolling Stone published a six-page exposé. He agreed to participate in at least eight further episodes of Ally McBeal despite the knowledge that he faced a possible jail term of four years and eight months upon conviction.
A parolee from Los Angeles saw Downey roaming barefoot in Culver City in April 2001. His release came hours after his arrest on drug-related charges, despite the fact that testing revealed he had cocaine in his system. Executives at Ally McBeal dismissed Downey and forced last-minute rewrites and reshoots following this most recent arrest, even though Downey's character had reignited ratings for the show. Along with his detention, Gibson's Culver City arrest cost him a role in the high-profile film America's Sweethearts. As a result, Gibson decided to abandon his Hamlet production. Downey avoided jail time by pleading not guilty to the Palm Springs accusations in July 2001. As a result of California Proposition 36, which was passed the previous year to assist nonviolent drug offenders in overcoming their addictions rather than being sent to prison, he was instead sentenced to three years of probation and sent to a drug recovery center. The court-ordered drug treatment center was Downey's home for a whole year. Downey was about to go bankrupt, had become an insurance burden, and was without a place to live at this point in time.
In his 2003 picture Melinda and Melinda, director Woody Allen intended to cast Downey and Winona Ryder, but he couldn't acquire insurance for them, according to Conversations with Woody Allen. According to Allen, "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."
According to an article published in People magazine on December 18, 2000, titled "Bad to Worse," Downey's stepmother Rosemary revealed to author Alex Tresnlowski that Downey had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder "a few years ago" and that this was "the reason he has a hard time staying sober. What hasn't been tried is medication and intensive psychotherapy." The same article also mentioned Dr. Manijeh Nikakhtar, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and co-author of Addiction or Self-Medication: The Truth, who claimed to have received a letter from Downey in 1999, while he was at Corcoran II, requesting advice regarding his condition. She came to realize "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.'"
When asked about his bipolar disorder, Downey wanted to address "this whole thing about the bipolar" in an essay he wrote for Esquire in March 2007, following a phone call from "the Bipolar Association" that had contacted him. The caller cited the People article in response to Downey's denial of ever having said he was bipolar. In response, Downey said, "'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 vehemently denied being "depressed or manic" and claimed that any prior efforts to diagnose him with a mental or mood disorder had been biased 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."
2001–2007: A Recovering and Resilient Era
A full recovery from drugs and a return to his career were within Downey's reach after five years of substance misuse, arrests, rehabilitation, and relapse. In discussing his failed attempts to control his 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
The music video for Elton John's "I Want Love" featured Downey lip-syncing in August 2001, marking his first acting gig since his recovery. After 16 takes, the director of the video, Sam Taylor-Wood, finally settled on the one in which Downey appeared most at ease, and John gushed about "the way he underplays it is fantastic." Mel Gibson, a longtime friend of Downey's from their time together in Air America, paid Downey's insurance bond for the 2003 film The Singing Detective, directed by Downey's Back to School co-star Keith Gordon. Gibson's risk allowed Downey to make a triumphant return to Hollywood in the mid-2000s with Gothika. To protect himself from Downey's addiction, producer Joel Silver withheld 40% of Downey's compensation until the picture ended. Throughout the 2000s, he made such stipulations the norm in his contracts. As his relationship with Susan Levin, who would eventually become Susan Downey, progressed, Silver brought Downey closer to the actor and cast him as the lead in Shane Black's first feature film, the comedic thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
Following Gothika, Downey had a diverse acting career, appearing in both leading and supporting roles. Some of his semi-independent films that were well-received included A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Good Night, and Good Luck. Downey also starred as a drug addict in Richard Linklater's dystopian rotoscoped A Scanner Darkly. In Steven Shainberg's fictional biographical film Fur, about Diane Arbus, Downey portrayed the two major figures who had an impact on Arbus's career: Lisette Model and Marvin Israel. Although the critical reception of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Disney's The Shaggy Dog were mixed, Downey nonetheless garnered praise for his parts in these more mainstream films.
Downey collaborated with his son Indio to develop the cover art and track listing label for Sony Classical's November 23, 2004, release of Downey's debut musical album, The Futurist. Although the album was well-received by critics, Downey said in 2006 that he likely wouldn't release another album since he didn't feel like he got his money's worth from it. Downey made a triumphant comeback to television in 2006 with his voice acting role in "The Fat Guy Strangler" episode of Family Guy. Downey had previously contacted the show's producers via phone to inquire about the possibility of producing or helping to create episodes, as his son Indio is a big fan of the show. After considering the offer, the show's creators cast Downey as Patrick Pewterschmidt, the long-lost, mentally unstable brother of Lois Griffin.
In 2006, Downey agreed to pen a memoir for HarperCollins, which was to be a "candid look at the highs and lows of his life and career." However, in 2008, he returned the advance to the publishers and abruptly canceled the book, with no more explanation. Based on a genuine event, Downey made an appearance in David Fincher's 2007 mystery film Zodiac. He portrayed Paul Avery, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle covering the Zodiac Killer investigation.
2008–2019: Iron Man's Stardom
Downey had never starred in a "blockbuster" picture, despite his extensive list of critical accolades. After starring in the critically acclaimed and economically successful 2008 blockbusters Tropic Thunder and Iron Man, Downey's fortunes turned around. Observing Downey's financially successful summer at the box office, Ben Stiller penned the following piece for Downey's entry in the 2008 edition of The Time 100:
Despite his Iron Man persona, Downey is actually more of an Actor Man... In the real world, where skill matters more than box office returns, he has always been king. And this summer, he gets his royal feast as we devour him at the multiplex, showcasing his expertise to its fullest.
Director Jon Favreau explained the casting of Downey as Tony Stark in 2007 with the following statement: "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 cast Downey, comparing him to Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean series: a lead actor who could elevate the quality of the film and increase public interest in it. Downey required five months to acquire almost 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of muscle for the part, giving the impression that he "had the power to forge iron."
Iron Man had a global release from April 30th to May 3rd, 2008, and grossed over $585 million. Critics praised Downey's performance, calling it the film's standout feature. Downey had already committed to starring in two sequels to Iron Man by October 2008; he would also appear in The Avengers, a film based on Marvel Comics' The Avengers, which would feature the superhero team that Stark becomes a part of. In 2008's The Incredible Hulk, he made a brief cameo as Tony Stark, Iron Man's alter ego, as part of Marvel Studios' efforts to represent the Marvel Universe on film and provide consistency across the many Marvel films.
Ben Stiller directed Downey's appearance in Tropic Thunder, which Jack Black and Iron Man co-starred in. Tropic Thunder is an incredibly costly Vietnam-era film starring Downey as the egotistical, multi-Oscar-winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus, along with two other actors who play stereotypical roles in Hollywood. To play the part of African-American platoon sergeant Lincoln Osiris, played by Downey, Lazarus gets a "controversial skin pigmentation procedure" that involves black cosmetics and a wig. It was a concern for Stiller and Downey that Downey's performance may spark controversy:
According to Stiller, he and Downey never lost sight of the reality that they were mocking obnoxious performers and not Black Americans. "I was attempting to push it to the limit of what is possible within the realm of reality," Stiller says. "I had no idea how people would respond to it" . The film did well with African Americans when Stiller showed a preliminary edit of it in March 2008. The reaction brought him relief. "It appears that individuals truly embrace it," he stated.
In response to Harry Smith's question on CBS's The Early Show about the inspiration of Lazarus, Downey chuckled and said, "Sadly, my sorry-ass self."
Review aggregators Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic both gave Tropic Thunder a solid reception upon its August 13, 2008, U.S. release. The film had an average normalized score of 71 and 83% of reviews were positive. For the first three weekends after its release, it remained at the top of the box office, earning a total of US$26 million. Prior to its home video release on November 18, 2008, the picture made $180 million at the box office. Oscar voters recognized Downey's performance as Lazarus and nominated him for best supporting actor.
The Soloist, a film that Downey completed in the middle of 2008, premiered in late April 2009. Paramount Pictures used their tight end-of-year release schedule to push back the film's release date from November 2008 to January 2009. Early reviews from critics who saw the picture in 2008 suggested it would be an Oscar contender. For his work in the 2008 film Tropic Thunder, Downey received an Oscar nomination that same year.
Sherlock Holmes, in Guy Ritchie's version, was the first part that Downey took following Iron Man. It came out on December 25, 2009, from Warner Bros. After breaking the previous record-holder, 2008's Marley & Me, by roughly $10 million, the picture went on to smash many records for a Christmas Day release at the box office in the US. It also ended second in a record-setting Christmas weekend box office, behind only Avatar. Ultimately, 2009's highest-grossing picture was Sherlock Holmes. While accepting the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Downey joked that he hadn't thought about anything to say since "Susan Downey told me that Matt Damon was going to win so don't bother preparing a speech." This was in reference to his role as Sherlock Holmes.
Released in May of 2010, Iron Man 2 was the first of two planned sequels to Iron Man and featured Downey's return as Tony Stark. With almost $623 million at the box office, Iron Man 2 surpassed all but six films in 2010 in terms of total earnings. Due Date, a comedic road picture, was Downey's other 2010 commercial release. With a global revenue of almost $211 million, the film became the 36th highest-grossing film of 2010 following its November 2010 release and starring Zach Galifianakis. Only Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which premiered on December 16, 2011, had Downey's name attached to it in 2011.
Downey Jr. played Tony Stark again in 2012's The Avengers. Both critics and audiences loved the picture, and it went on to become the third highest-grossing film of all time in the US and the globe. The 2014 Toronto International picture Festival opened with his picture, the David Dobkin–directed dramedy The Judge, which he co-produced with his production company, Team Downey. Iron Man 3 (2013), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019) all had Downey reprising his role as Tony Stark. His debut episode of the Disney+ series Loki used archive material from three of his sequences in The Avengers and Avengers: Endgame. In 2019, Downey presided over a documentary series called The Age of A.I. that premiered on YouTube.
Oppenheimer and expansion from 2020 onwards
Downey played the lead role of the title character, a Welsh veterinarian from the 19th century with animal communication abilities, in the 2020 film Dolittle. This was Team Downey's second feature film. Not only did it bomb at the box office, but critics panned it, describing it as "too long [and] lifeless."
In Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023), Downey played the role of Lewis Strauss, an unpleasant bureaucrat. He normally earns $10–$20 million up front, but he decreased his remuneration to $4 million to work on the project. In retrospect, Downey calls Oppenheimer "the best film" he's been in thus far. Critics were quite complimentary of the biopic and of Downey's performance in it. He took home many awards for his performance in the part, including Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics' Choice. In 2023, Downey also presented the show Downey's Dream Cars, in which he and his crew transformed a few of Downey's gas-powered vehicles into electric ones.
Next, Downey portrayed five hostile supporting characters representing the American establishment in an HBO 2024 television version of historical satire novel The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. A nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie came his way for his work in many roles. Playing the role of Jacob McNeal, a talented writer with a troubled family life and a possibly dangerous interest in artificial intelligence, Downey Jr. makes his Broadway debut in McNeal, written by Ayad Akhtar. The limited engagement run, which began on September 5, 2024, and ended on November 24, took place at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre, where previews had begun on September 30, 2024.
Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe films Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) will include Downey's return to the MCU in a new character as Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom, as revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024.
There is music.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Singing Detective, Chaplin, Too Much Sun, Two Girls and a Guy, Friends and Lovers, and Too Much Sun are just a few of Downey's film soundtracks. The 2001 music video for "I Want Love" by Elton John included him. In 2004, he put out a CD titled The Futurist. In the same year, he promoted his picture Tropic Thunder and, together with co-stars Ben Stiller and Jack Black, sang "The Pips" while Gladys Knight sang "Midnight Train to Georgia" on the American Idol season 7 finals.
The Ally McBeal: A Very Ally Christmas album, released in 2000, featured Downey's rendition of "River," a 1973 Joni Mitchell Christmas song; Downey's character Larry Paul sings the song in the Ally McBeal episode "Tis the Season." This was Downey's most commercially successful recording endeavor to date, taking into account sales and radio airplay.
=> Company =>
Susan Downey and her husband Downey launched their production firm, Team Downey, on June 14, 2010. They started with The Judge. Along with Craig Dubitsky, Downey started a coffee company in 2024 called Happy.
**Private life**
Marriage and romantic partnerships
In 1984, while filming Firstborn, Downey met actress Sarah Jessica Parker, who he began dating. After dating for eight weeks, the two of them—both 18 years old—moved in together. His drug addiction caused the couple to divorce eight years later, in 1991.
After a 42-day relationship, Downey wed singer and actress Deborah Falconer on May 29, 1992. They were just dating for six weeks when they tied the knot. September 1993 saw the birth of their son. When Falconer's patience with Downey's many visits to rehab and jail finally gave out in 1996, she filed for a divorce in early 2001, stating "irreconcilable differences" as the cause. By 2004, Downey and Falconer had formalized their divorce, and Falconer had obtained custody of their son.
While filming Gothika in 2003, Downey crossed paths with Susan Levin, who was the executive VP of production at Silver Pictures, Joel Silver's production business. Susan rejected Downey's love attempts on two occasions, although they did secretly start dating while filming. When filming on Gothika concluded, Susan was worried that their romance wouldn't endure since "he's an actor; I have a real job." However, the two remained together and Downey proposed to Susan the night before her 31st birthday. The pair tied the knot in a traditional Jewish ceremony at Amagansett, New York, in August 2005. His homage to her is a tattoo that says "Suzie Q" on one of his biceps. A girl was born to the Downeys in November 2014, and their first child, a male, was born in February 2012.
When Mel Gibson and Downey were co-stars in Air America, they became fast friends. While the Passion of the Christ issue was raging, Downey stood by Gibson, saying, "nobody's perfect" in regard to Gibson's 2006 DUI. Gibson praised Downey, saying, "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.'" Downey received an accolade at the 25th American Cinematheque Awards in October 2011. While Downey was on the air, he used the opportunity to thank Gibson for accepting his lifetime achievement award and to explain his decision.
A state of sobriety
The martial art of Wing Chun kung fu, which Downey learned from Eric Oram—who also happens to be a fight consultant in a few of Downey's films—along with the support of his family, friends, therapists, meditation, twelve-step programs, yoga, and, of course, his wife—All of these helped him overcome his addictions and stay sober since July 2003. On both Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Oram served as Downey's personal combat coordinator. For his past drug crimes, California Governor Jerry Brown pardoned Downey in December 2015 along with ninety-one others. Although Downey's criminal record will still be visible, he will be able to serve on juries thanks to the pardon. Oram sent a letter to Governor Brown endorsing Downey's pardon. Downey explained his current level of sobriety on The Oprah Winfrey Show, saying, "It's really not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems. What's hard is to decide to do it."
Beliefs in a higher power
Downey referred to himself as a "Jewish Buddhist" in 2014. There was a time when Downey was curious about Christianity and the Hare Krishna movement.
Political opinions
"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."(2008) Downey revealed that his time behind bars had altered his political leanings.
"I wouldn't say that I'm a Republican or a liberal or a Democrat." In response to a question on the comment from an interview in 2015 to promote Avengers: Age of Ultron, he disputed that his earlier statement represented any enduring beliefs.
It appears that Downey is a Democrat at heart. During Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign, he contributed to the cause. While in 2014 Downey was a donor to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and attended a Democratic Party fundraiser. Downey made an appearance in a 2016 online video in which he pleaded with Americans to reject Donald Trump in the approaching presidential election. Downey, along with other Avengers actors and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, participated in a virtual fundraiser in 2020 for Joe Biden's presidential campaign.
A nonprofit group that fights for changes in the criminal justice system to lessen the need for incarceration, enhance the lives of ex-offenders, and create safer neighborhoods, Downey is a board member of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition.
While promoting his 2020 film Dolittle, Downey said that he has decided to become vegan in light of the climate problem, saying, "I'm a one-man carbon footprint nightmare colossus" and that he believes he can make a difference. Footprint Coalition, an organization Downey founded to lessen global carbon footprints via the application of cutting-edge technologies, was earlier disclosed. Startups like Ynsect, which raises insects for food, RWDC, which makes bio-based alternatives to plastic, and Cloud Paper, which makes bamboo toilet paper, are all part of the environmentally friendly technology that the Footprint Coalition supports.
After discovering his vegan diet was deficient in vitamin B12, iron, and calcium, Downey announced in January 2024 that he was now a pescetarian. In Cool Food: Erasing Your Carbon Footprint One Bite at a Time, he and his co-authors promote a plant-based, low-carbon diet as a means to lessen environmental impact.
* Acknowledgments and acting credits*
Throughout his career, Downey has made appearances in more than 70 films. Tropic Thunder, Oppenheimer, the Sherlock Holmes films, and a number of Marvel Studios features, such as Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man, and the Avengers flicks, are among Downey's most commercially successful films, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The Numbers reports that Downey is the third highest-grossing actor of all time, with a total of nearly $14 billion from his films. Forbes magazine labeled him the highest-paid actor in Hollywood from 2013 to 2015. Among his many honors are two British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globes, and an Oscar.