When his parents divorced in 1978, Downey moved to California with his father, but in 1982, he dropped out of Santa Monica High School, and moved back to New York to pursue an acting career full-time. He attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York as a teenager. At the age of 10, he was living in England and studied classical ballet as part of a larger curriculum. He made his acting debut at the age of five, playing a sick puppy in the absurdist comedy Pound (1970), and then at seven appeared in the surrealist Western Greaser's Palace (1972). ĭuring his childhood, Downey had minor roles in his father's films. Downey later stated that drug use became an emotional bond between him and his father: "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." Eventually, Downey began spending every night abusing alcohol and "making a thousand phone calls in pursuit of drugs". Īs a child, Downey was "surrounded by drugs." His father, a drug addict, allowed Downey to use marijuana at age six, an incident which his father later said he regretted.
Downey and his older sister Allyson grew up in Greenwich Village. Robert's original family name was Elias which was changed by his father to enlist in the Army. Downey's father was of half Lithuanian-Jewish, one-quarter Hungarian-Jewish, and one-quarter Irish descent, while Downey's mother had Scottish, German, and Swiss ancestry. His father, Robert Downey Sr., was an actor and filmmaker, while his mother, Elsie Ann (née Ford), was an actress who appeared in Downey Sr.'s films.
Downey gained global recognition for starring as Tony Stark / Iron Man in ten films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Iron Man (2008). He went on to star in the black comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), the thriller Zodiac (2007), and the action comedy Tropic Thunder (2008) for the latter he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Initially, bond completion companies would not insure Downey, until Mel Gibson paid the insurance bond for the 2003 film The Singing Detective. He stayed in a court-ordered drug treatment program and has maintained his sobriety since 2003. He was fired from the show in the wake of drug charges in 20.
Following a stint at the Corcoran Substance Abuse Treatment Facility on drug charges, he joined the TV series Ally McBeal, for which he won a Golden Globe Award. In 1992, Downey portrayed the title character in the biopic Chaplin, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won a BAFTA Award. He subsequently worked with the Brat Pack in the teen films Weird Science (1985) and Less Than Zero (1987). Īt the age of five, he made his acting debut in Robert Downey Sr.'s film Pound in 1970. In 2008, Downey was named by Time magazine among the 100 most influential people in the world, and from 2013 to 2015, he was listed by Forbes as Hollywood's highest-paid actor. His career has been characterized by critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, before a resurgence of commercial success later in his career. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor and producer.