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Robert Downey Jr.

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Robert John Downey Jr.
File:Robert downey jr 1990.jpg
Downey at the premiere of Air America in 1990.
Height173 cm (68 in)
Spouse(s)Susan Levin
27 August 2005 - present
Deborah Falconer
29 May 1992 - 26 April 2004
Websitewww.robertdowneyjrmusic.com

Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning American actor and musician. He first became known during the late 1980s and early 1990s, after a series of well-reviewed performances in Hollywood films. After a period of drug addiction during the late 1990s, Downey Jr. resumed his acting career, appearing on the television series Ally McBeal as well as in a number of supporting and lead film roles, including the upcoming Iron Man.

Biography

Early life and career

Downey Jr. was born in New York City, New York to Elsie, a dancer and singer, and Robert Downey Sr., a director of underground films. He has a sister, Alison. Downey Jr. is Jewish on his father's side, the original family name being "Elias";[1][2] he also has Irish ancestry.[3]

During his childhood, he had a minor role playing a puppy in his father's film Pound (1970). Downey Jr. grew up in California with his father. At the age of twenty, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, but was a cast member for only one season. He went on to star in The Pick-up Artist in 1987. The same year, he portrayed the drug-addicted rich boy in Less Than Zero. In 1992, he starred as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, a role which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. His other films in the 1990s included Heart and Souls, Only You, Natural Born Killers, and Restoration.

Downey as Charlie Chaplin in the Chaplin poster

Drug addiction

On June 23, 1996, Downey Jr. was arrested for driving drunk and being in possession of heroin and cocaine and an unloaded .357 Magnum revolver. On November 6, Malibu Municipal Judge Lawrence Mira sentenced Downey to three years probation for weapons and drugs charges. However, just over one year later, on December 8, 1997, Judge Mira sentenced Downey to six months in jail for violating parole. Eighteen months later, Downey returned to Corcoran State Prison to serve a three-year sentence for a parole violation again on July 16, 1999. A California state appellate court ordered Downey released from his term in state prison due to a sentencing error made by his trial judge in August 1999. An appeals court panel ordered his immediate release. The appeals court said Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira did not take into account time Downey had spent in court-ordered rehab and ruled that the actor ended up serving more than enough time to fulfill his sentence. Downey was arrested again in a Palm Springs, California hotel for cocaine and Valium possession and being under the influence of a controlled substance on November 25, 2000. However, those charges were dismissed in July 2002 due to Proposition 36. The judge had determined that Downey had been drug free for 14 months. Around this time, Downey was also arrested for climbing into the bed of his next door neighbor's child late one night while under the influence of alcohol, but was never convicted.

On April 24, 2001, he was arrested in Culver City, California, for being under the influence of a controlled substance after he was found wandering in an alley. He was not charged. Downey has not had any more public incidents since that time and has allegedly remained clean and sober. He has stated that his father introduced him to drugs by offering him a marijuana joint when he was eight years old. Downey also has revealed he suffers from bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. Having been the butt of numerous jokes over the years regarding his addictions, Downey himself willingly poked fun at his own substance abuse problems and jail time on Saturday Night Live when he hosted. During his opening monologue, he showed slides of his "summer vacation", during which he spent time in jail. He got the biggest laughs of the monologue when he said "And what summer would be complete without a little romance" and he reveals a shot of him with his thumbs up- and a big burly man with his arm around Downey.

Later career

In 2000, Downey Jr. became a regular on the television series Ally McBeal. He won a Golden Globe award and was also nominated for an Emmy. He also appeared as a writer and singer on Vonda Shephard's "Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life" album and sang in a duet with Sting on The Police's "Every Breath You Take" hit dating from 1983. Downey also appeared in Elton John video "I Want Love" in 2001. On November 23, 2004, he released his debut musical album "The Futurist" on Sony Classical, for which he designed the cover art. He was invited to open for Duran Duran in 2005, but declined due to film commitments.

He returned to film in the mid 2000s, with three roles in 2005 and seven roles in 2006. Among them are the already-released Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Good Night, and Good Luck., The Shaggy Dog, and A Scanner Darkly, as well as the upcoming Zodiac and Fur. On September 28, 2006, it was announced that Downey would star in the film Iron Man as the titular character;[4] the film is scheduled for release on May 2, 2008.

Personal life

Downey Jr. dated actress Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1980s. He married actress Deborah Falconer on May 29, 1992 and had a son named Indio. They divorced on April 26, 2004. On August 27, 2005, Downey Jr. married producer Susan Levin, (whom he met on the set of Gothika) in a Jewish ceremony at Amagansett, New York.

Downey practices Wing Chun Kung Fu, which he has credited with helping him beat his addiction.[5]

Filmography

Upcoming:

Recurring Characters on SNL

  • Jimmy Chance: a hipster movie critic (paired with Nora Dunn's Ashley Ashley)
  • Rudy Randolph III: Son of Randy Quaid's Rudy Randolph, Jr.

Footnotes

  1. ^ "FoxNews.com". Mel Gibson's New 'Passion' Is Robert Downey Jr. Retrieved September 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Ally McBeal News Archive Part 1". Tidbit. Retrieved September 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "The Irish Echo". Back with a Bang. Retrieved September 30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man". Marvel. 2006-09-29. Retrieved 2006-09-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1080388,00.html "More than skin deep," Guardian.co.uk, November 8, 2003
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