Robert Downey Jr.’s criminal record weighs heavily: coke, weed, heroin, illegal possession of weapons, burglaries, hit-and-runs… Definitely more “Bang! Bang!” than “Kiss Kiss!”. If he remembers the part of the nineties that he didn’t spend in police custody, he’ll realize: Back then, no one would have bet a penny that this wreck would be the highest earning actor in 2013. Well. On April 4, the millionaire celebrates his 50th birthday. Hardly with raspberry syrup.
At the age of 20, Downey Jr. made it onto the comedy TV show “Saturday Night Live”. Shortly afterwards, his first successful films followed, such as “Weird Science” (1985), “Back To School” (1985), “The Pick-up Artist” (1987) and “Less Than Zero” (1987). He is the first regular team member of “Saturday Night Live” to be nominated for an Oscar.
Robert Downey Jr. first comeback
In 2000, Robert Downey Jr. celebrated a comeback in the successful TV series “Ally McBeal”. For his outstanding performance, he was honored with both the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Award in 2001. But during filming, Downey was again sentenced to prison for repeated drug use, whereupon the producers fired him in 2001.
Downey Jr.’s drug excesses escalated from the mid-90s. In June 1996, he was stopped by the police while driving naked in his Porsche. The cops found cocaine, heroin and a .357 Magnum in the car. In November 2000, he was arrested in a hotel room in Palm Springs with cocaine, wearing a Wonder Woman costume. His addiction brought him several arrests and stays in prison and rehab clinics.
The blockbusters
Blockbusters such as “Iron Man”, “Sherlock Holmes”, “Tropic Thunder” and “Due Date” have also kept Robert’s tills ringing. With assets of around 190 million US$ and an estimated 75 million US$ annual income, he is set. Not bad for someone who was long considered a guarantee of failure and scandal in Hollywood.
Robert Downey Jr. can do much more than just act
Robert Downey Jr. plays bass, piano and drums. He can also sing, as you can hear on his 2004 solo album “The Futurist”. He himself describes his music as “highbrow pop with jazz and classical influences”.
His wife Susan Downey (formerly Levin) met Robert on the set of “Gothika” (2003), which she produced. They married in 2005 and have a son (Exton Elias, born in 2012) and a daughter (Avri Roel, born in 2014). From his first marriage to Deborah Falconer (1992-2004), he has a grown-up son (Indio, born in 1993).
Robert Downey Jr. has been sober since 2003. Wing Chun, a form of Kung Fu, gave him the strength to overcome his addictions. Since then, he has (apparently) remained clean, and his career is only heading in one direction: upwards.
Robert John Downey Jr. was born on 4. He was born in New York on April 1965. Father Robert was a writer, director and cameraman, mother Elsie an actress. His paternal grandfather came from Latvia, while his mother had roots from Ireland, Hungary, England, Germany and Switzerland.
In the 1980s, Robert Downey Jr. was in a relationship with Sarah Jessica Parker for seven years.
What Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow is to Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man. While his fee for part one was US$ 500,000, it was already US$ 10 million for the second part. US$, and for his part in “The Avengers” (2012) he received a total of – with revenue share – 50 million US$. Or a hundredfold increase within four years. And even 1,000 times more than the US$ 50,000 he received in 1995 for his role in “Richard III”.
After his parents divorced in 1978, he moved to California with his father. In 1982, he dropped out of Santa Monica High School to devote himself entirely to acting. Robert Downey Senior was a drug addict and brought Junior into contact with drugs at an early age, which almost killed him for the next two decades.
Friends describe “Bob”, as they call him, as very charming, not particularly modest and with a dry, sarcastic sense of humor. Just as we had imagined. And he also has good taste: his favorite actor is Peter O’Toole.
Robert Downey Jr. gives a brilliant performance in Sir Richard Attenborough’s film “Chaplin” (1992), in which he brilliantly plays the great Charlie Chaplin in all phases of his life. The role earned him the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and an Oscar nomination in the same category.
Picture: Picture Alliance
Read the facts about the cult film Pulp Fiction here. Robert Downey Jr. would also have fitted in perfectly.