Jump To Robert Downey Jr's Stats
For more than 40 years, Robert Downey Jr. has been putting his mug up on the silver screen. A lot of that has to do with the fact that his father, a filmmaker, started him out when he was five-years-old. Through those four decades of portraying others, Downey has covered a wide swath. From an African-American (Tropic Thunder) to a man of metal (Iron Man), he has applied his unique talent to underplay a role as if he weren't acting. From a iconic comedic figure (Chaplin) to a petulant detective (Sherlock Holmes) unperturbed by mere character difficulties, Downey has been able to carry the torch with great (commercial) success.
In that time, Downey has appeared in over 70 films and that's not even counting his television appearances or his theater parts. Call him busy if you will, but the demand and box office appeal make for a great pairing.
For the longest time though, Downey faced an uphill battle with drug and alcohol addiction. Between 1994 and 2001, he used the justice system as a turnstile with his multiple brushes of drug arrests, rehabilitation and incarceration. According to Downey though, he has been clean and sober since 2003 through a variety of efforts that mainly include his producer/wife Susan. With nearly ten years of sobriety under his belt, he – along with Ben Stiller – made fun of his past addictions in one of the Tropic Thunder scenes as his character Kirk Lazarus. Downey won a Best Supporting Oscar for that portrayal.
Award nominations are nothing new for Downey. He has received them for his role in the movie Chaplin, which he received nominations from BAFTA and the Academy for Best Actor in 1992. He received and won a Golden Globe for his recent role as Sherlock Holmes.
Downey has cut one album, thinking of his love for music. The critics panned the album though, convincing him that he should stick to making moving pictures instead of recording sound.