Robert Downey Jr.

Did You Know?

• Downey started dating actress Sarah Jessica Parker in 1984 after meeting her on the set of Firstborn; their relationship ended in 1991 largely due to his drug addiction.
• He married singer Deborah Falconer in 1992 after a six-week courtship; they had one son before divorcing in 2004.
• Downey married film producer Susan Levin in 2005 in a Jewish ceremony in Amagansett, New York; they have two children together.

Early life and acting background

Robert John Downey Jr. was born in Manhattan, New York City, on April 4, 1965. His father, Robert Downey Sr., was a filmmaker with Lithuanian Jewish and Irish ancestry; his mother, Elsie Ann, was an actress with Scottish, German, and Swiss ancestry. He has an older sister, Allyson. Due to his father's film projects, Downey moved frequently, living in Woodstock, New York; London, England; New Mexico; California; Connecticut; and Greenwich Village.

From a young age, he was exposed to drugs: his father struggled with addiction, his mother battled alcoholism, and his father introduced him to marijuana at either age six or eight. Downey later said that using drugs with his father created an emotional connection. He made his acting debut at age five, portraying a sick puppy in Pound (1970), and appeared in Greaser's Palace (1972) at age seven. At ages eleven and twelve, he attended Stagedoor Manor, a summer acting camp.

His parents divorced when he was twelve; he lived with his mother in New York City while his sister stayed with their father. He attended Lincoln Junior High School and Santa Monica High School but dropped out in 1982. At age 17, he relocated to pursue acting full-time, working jobs such as clearing tables, working in a shoe store, and performing as living art at the nightclub Area, while appearing in local theater and off-Broadway productions.

Career

Downey made his stage debut in 1983 with a three-week run in Alms for the Middle Class at the Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York, and later appeared in the off-Broadway musical American Passion. His first credited film role was in Baby It's You (1983), though most of his scenes were cut. He frequently portrayed misfit characters in early roles, including a supporting part in Firstborn (1984) and a punk drummer in Tuff Turf (1985). His breakthrough came as a bully in John Hughes's Weird Science (1985).

In 1985, he joined the new cast of Saturday Night Live but was dismissed after one season. His first leading role was in The Pick-up Artist (1987), and he earned critical acclaim for his role as a drug-addicted rich boy in Less than Zero (1987). Downey's portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin (1992) earned him a BAFTA Award for Best Actor and an Academy Award nomination. After drug-related arrests, he joined Ally McBeal in 2000, winning a Golden Globe, but was dismissed in 2001.

He has remained sober since 2003. He achieved global recognition as Tony Stark / Iron Man in ten Marvel Cinematic Universe films, beginning in 2008, and is set to return as Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday (2026). He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer (2023) and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for The Sympathizer (2024).

Other ventures

Downey has contributed vocals to several of his film soundtracks, including Chaplin, Too Much Sun, Two Girls and a Guy, Friends and Lovers, and The Singing Detective. In late 2004, he put out his sole studio album, The Futurist, a jazz-pop effort produced by Jonathan Elias and Mark Hudson, with Downey handling piano on certain tracks. It entered the Billboard 200 at number 121, moving 16,000 copies in its first week. During the Tropic Thunder press tour, he joined Ben Stiller and Jack Black as backup singers for Gladys Knight on the American Idol season 7 finale.

Downey has worked multiple times with musician Sting, including a 2001 duet of "Every Breath You Take" on Ally McBeal and a live "Driven to Tears" at Sting's 60th birthday concert in 2011. Both also appeared on Elias's benefit album Prayer Cycle 2: Path to Zero, which supported the anti-nuclear group Global Zero. Politically, Downey has backed the Democratic Party. He donated to Barack Obama's 2012 campaign, later appeared in a video urging a vote against Donald Trump in 2016, joined a virtual fundraiser for Joe Biden's 2020 campaign alongside Kamala Harris, and endorsed Harris in her 2024 presidential run.

In a 2008 New York Times interview, he said his prison time shaped his political views, though in 2015 he clarified he does not identify as Republican, liberal, or Democrat.

Artistry and public image

Robert Downey Jr. is praised for his range across dramas, comedies, and action movies, frequently taking on roles that are smart, charismatic, layered, and imperfect. Critics highlight how he disappears into a part, making the character feel authentic. In his early work, his style stood out for being neither brooding nor overly self-involved, but instead marked by a near-constant sense of amusement. Downey has called himself an "incredibly gifted faker" who claims to know little about the craft.

For certain roles, he has thrown himself into deep preparation, like training for months to replicate Charlie Chaplin's physicality for the 1992 film Chaplin or staying in character off-camera for Tropic Thunder. He describes his method as intuitive and improvisational, aiming to make a well-crafted scene feel spontaneous. As a leading man, his movies have earned over $14.3 billion globally, ranking him fourth all-time in box office gross. Forbes named him the world's highest-paid actor in 2013, 2014, and 2015, with earnings of $75 million in the first two years and $80 million in the last.

Time listed him among the 100 most influential people in 2008, and in 2025, The Independent ranked him the 44th greatest film actor of the 21st century.