Robert Downey Jr.

Born in New York on April 4, 1965, Robert John Downey, Jr. is the son, as you might guess, of Robert Downey, Sr., an independent film director who first brought him to the big screen in one of his movies, Pound , when he was only five years old. At fifteen, his mother called on him again for Up the Academy , a comedy for teenagers that took place in a military academy, in which he shared the bill with Ralph Maccio. At the age of eleven he began to go every summer to the Stagedor Manor camp, in the Catskills mountains of New York state, where dance, acting and improvisation classes were taught.

These experiences convinced the boy that he was going to be an actor. When he graduated from high school, he moved to New York to study drama. Coming out of it, he was slow to get taken seriously in show business. He worked as a shoe salesman, and as a walk-on in a cabaret, until he opened a niche specializing in supporting roles as a student, a friend of the leads, in Turf Turf , Back to School , Johnny Superstar and The Exploding Woman . During the filming of the latter, he hit it off with the lead, Anthony Michael Hall , a regular comedian on Saturday Night Live ., who managed to get hired in the famous show. Robert Downey Jr. appeared regularly there for a year, which gave him some fame. Critics began to realize his talent for his portrayal of a young drug addict in Golpe al sueño americano . He rose to co-star opposite Mel Gibson on Air America , where he was an unlicensed pilot who agreed to fly cargo in Laos during the Vietnam War.

The British Richard Attenborough bet heavily on Robert Downey, Jr. giving him the leading role of Chaplin , biography of the great filmmaker and actor. Without a doubt, he took advantage of the opportunity, composing a great work, which was very reminiscent of the real character. The Hollywood Academy recognized his good work with the only Oscar nomination Robert Downey, Jr. has received to date, but it was snatched away by Al Pacino , for Essence of a Woman . He has been at such a high level on other occasions, such as in Lives Crossed , where he was a television makeup artist eager to deceive his wife, in Restoration , where he was an aspiring doctor currying favor with the king and inRichard III , where he was a victim of the leading monarch played by Ian McKellen , in a version of Shakespeare’s play set in Nazi times. He made a name for himself in Natural Born Killers , in which he was a rogue journalist, and also had prominent roles in US Marshalls , Inside My Dreams , and Conflict of Interest . The good, if brief, like his role as editor in Young Miracles , twice as good.

Joined Ally McBeal in 2000, where he played a lawyer who dates the protagonist, and who unexpectedly turns out to be her ideal man. The series – which was in the doldrums – broke its own audience records, and Robert Downey, Jr. was awarded the Golden Globe for his work. But the actor was unexpectedly arrested for drug possession. The executives decided to fire him immediately. The writers solved the ballot with a sudden flight of the character, who was saying goodbye to Ally McBeal through a note that she had supposedly left him. Despite having been sentenced to prison, the actor tries to regenerate, has undergone rehabilitation and has tried to take it with humor. He thus reveals what he said during an Oscar delivery, when he came out to give the award for best special effects:

He seems more focused in recent times, especially since his marriage to Susan Levin, now Susan Downey, whom he met while filming Gothika . This executive producer, one of the trusted people of the powerful producer Joel Silver , seems to have turned out to be the better half of Robert Downey, Jr., who had a sonorous romance with actress Sarah Jessica Parker years ago , and previously married another actress, Deborah Falconer, with whom he had a son named Indio. Sentimental stability has allowed Robert Downey Jr. to balance and focus a little more on his career, which is why in recent years he has not stopped working, on tapes such as the highly original The Singing Detective–which again paired him with Mel Gibson–, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang , Good Night and Good Luck –directed by George Clooney– , Zodiac , the failed Portrait of an Obsession and Memories of Queens , an autobiographical drama directed by the writer Dito Montiel .

It can be said that he has taken flight, just as the superhero he embodies in Iron Man also flies . But he has generated some controversy among the African-American community, for playing a black man, with the help of makeup artists, in Tropic Thunder , a comedy directed by Ben Stiller . It’s actually a meta-cinematographic film, in which he plays a Hollywood actor who accepts a role originally written for a black actor, for which he decides to paint his skin to play it more authentically.