Matinee Classics - Robert Downey Jr. Biography & Filmography

Robert Downey Jr. ACTOR

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Robert Downey Jr. was born on April 4th, 1965 in New York City, New York with the birth name Robert John Downey Jr. His parents were, Elsie, who was an actress, and her husband, Robert Downey Sr. who was employed as an actor, writer, producer and director. Being born into a family of show business involvement, he was already involved in the entertainment industry making his screen debut at the age of five in the film, "Pound" (1970). Since then, he has continued working in the industry in a number of his father's films such as, "Greaser's Palace" (1972).

Downey worked as a child actor but also went to school at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts training Center in New York. When his parents divorced he moved to California with his father, but dropped out of Santa Monica High School before earning his degree and chose to focus full time on a career as an actor.

He made the transition from child actor to adult actor with ease. Some of his earlier film roles were in, "Weird Science" (1985), "Less Than Zero" (1987), "Chances Are" (1989), "Air America'" (1990), "Soapdish" (1991), "Natural Born Killers" (1994) and "Chaplin" (1992) for which he earned an Academy Award nomination. for Best Actor. During this time in his career he also appeared on "Saturday Night Live".

As his career progressed, Downey was seen in a number of other films such as, "The Gingerbread Man" (1998), "One Night Stand" (1997), "Huge Pool" (1997), "U.S. Marshalls" (1998), "Bowfinger" (1999), "Black and White" (1999), "Wonder Boys" (2000),"A Scanner Darkly" (2006), "Good Night, and Good Luck" (2005), "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" (2005), "Zodiac" (2007)."

At the height of popularity in his career, his personal life was battling an addiction to drugs. As a child he had been exposed to drug use from his father. So now as an adult, he followed in his father's footsteps, constantly in the tabloids being arrested on various drug charges and between 1996 and 2001 he was in and out of treatment. After completing treatment at the California Substance Abuse Treatment facility and State Prison in the year 2000, he returned to acting and took on a television role.

He debuted on, "Ally McBeal' (1997) playing the attorney, Larry Paul. For this role he earned a Golden Globe Award as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a male in a Comedy Series. Downey was also nominated for an Emmy. He was later fired from this show due to his drug addiction being a problem. Finally, Downey decided to clean up his act for good and his career was back heading in the right direction. In 2001 he was cast in, "I Want Love" his first film role since completing rehab and finally, he had realized he had beat his addiction.

Other television roles he took on during his career were on such series as, "Family Guy" (2006). He has also received a number of honors in Hollywood for his roles in such films as, "Tropic Thunder" (2008) for which he received another Academy Award nomination for best Actor for his role playing, 'Kirk Lazarus'. Then in 2009 he starred in, "Sherlock Holmes" which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture.

Not only is Robert Downey Jr. a talented actor he is also a popular musician. In 2004 he released his debut album titled, "The Futurist". He also shared his musical talent in two musical films in the early 2000's, "The Singing Detective" (2003) and "Gothika" (2003).

Along with a highly successful career as one of the most popular actors, Downey also owns a production company along with his wife called, Team Downey. The first film they have produced is set to release in 2013, titled, "Yucatan" followed by another film that will release shortly afterwards, "Emergency!" (2013).

Recently, he has starred in numerous successful films such as, "Iron Man" (2008), "Iron Man II" (2010), "Due Date" (2010) and his role as Tony Stark will be reprised in, "The Avengers" to release in 2012 and another "Iron Man III" set to also release in 2013.

Robert Downey Jr. has been married twice. His first wife was Deborah Falconer whom he wed in 1992 and after having one son, Indio Falconer Downey, the couple divorced in 2004. He then married producer, Susan Levin in 2005 and the couple remains together today. He thanks his family for helping him stay drug free since 2003.

Filmography

2013 Iron Man 3

2012 The Avengers

2011 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

2010 Due Date

2010 Love & Distrust

2010 Iron Man 2

2009 Sherlock Holmes

2009 The Soloist

2008 Tropic Thunder: Rain of Madness

2008 Tropic Thunder

2008 The Incredible Hulk