John Downey Jr. is an American actor and producer popularly known for his role as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 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.
Early Life
Downey was born April 4, 1965 in Manhattan, New York City, the younger of two children. 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’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. Robert’s original family name was Elias which was changed by his father to enlist in the Army. Downey and his older sister Allyson grew up in Greenwich Village.
As 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 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”.
During his childhood, Downey had minor roles in his father’s films. 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). At the age of 10, he was living in England and studied classical ballet as part of a larger curriculum. He attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York as a teenager. 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.
Downey and Kiefer Sutherland, who shared the screen in the 1988 drama 1969, were roommates for three years when he first moved to Hollywood to pursue his career in acting.
Career
At the age of five, he made his acting debut in his father Robert Downey Sr.’s film Pound in 1970. He subsequently worked with the Brat Pack in the teen films Weird Science (1985) and Less than Zero (1987). 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. 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. He was fired from the show in the wake of drug charges in 2000 and 2001. He stayed in a court-ordered drug treatment program and has maintained his sobriety since 2003.
Initially, completion bond companies would not insure Downey, until Mel Gibson paid the insurance bond for the 2003 film The Singing Detective. 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.
Downey gained global recognition for starring as Tony Stark/Iron Man in ten films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Iron Man (2008), and leading up to Avengers: Endgame (2019). He has also played the title character in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes (2009), which earned him his second Golden Globe, and its sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011).
Personal Life
Downey started dating actress Sarah Jessica Parker in 1984 after meeting her on the set of Firstborn. The couple later separated in 1991 due to his drug addiction.
Downey married actress and singer Deborah Falconer on May 29, 1992, after a 42-day courtship. Their son, Indio Falconer Downey, was born in September 1993. The strain on their marriage from Downey’s repeated trips to rehab and jail finally reached a breaking point; in 2001, in the midst of Downey’s last arrest and sentencing to an extended stay in rehab, Falconer left Downey and took their son with her. Downey and Falconer finalized their divorce on April 26, 2004.
In 2003, Downey met producer Susan Downey (née Levin), an executive vice-president of production at Joel Silver’s film company, Silver Pictures, on the set of Gothika. Though Susan twice turned down his romantic advances, she and Downey did quietly strike up a romance during production. Despite Susan’s worries that the romance would not last after the completion of shooting given that “he’s an actor; I have a real job”, the couple’s relationship continued after production wrapped on Gothika, and Downey proposed to Susan on the night before her thirtieth birthday. In August 2005, the couple were married, in a Jewish ceremony, at Amagansett, New York. A tattoo on one of his biceps reads “Suzie Q” in tribute to her. The Downeys’ first child, a son named Exton Elias, was born in February 2012, and their second, a daughter named Avri Roel, was born in November 2014.
Downey has been a close friend of Mel Gibson since they starred in Air America. Downey defended Gibson during the controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ, and said “nobody’s perfect” in reference to Gibson’s 2006 DUI. Gibson said of Downey: “He was one of the first people to call and offer the hand of friendship. He just said, ‘Hey, welcome to the club. Let’s go see what we can do to work on ourselves.'” In October 2011, Downey was being honored at the 25th American Cinematheque Awards; Downey chose Gibson to present him with his award for his life’s work and used his air time to say a few kind words about Gibson and explain why he chose him to present the award.
Downey says he has been drug-free since July 2003, and credited his wife with helping him overcome his drug and alcohol habits, along with his family, therapy, meditation, twelve-step recovery programs, yoga, and the practice of Wing Chun kung fu, the martial art he learned from Eric Oram, who is also a fight consultant in several of Downey’s movies. Oram was Downey’s personal fight coordinator in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. In December 2015, Downey received a full and unconditional pardon from Governor of California Jerry Brown for his prior drug convictions. Oram wrote a letter in support of Downey’s pardon to Governor Brown. When asked why he was able to make his sobriety stick this time on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Downey said, “It’s really not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems. What’s hard is to decide to do it.”
Downey has described his religious beliefs as “Jewish Buddhist”, and he is reported to have consulted astrologers.In the past, Downey has been interested in Christianity and the Hare Krishna movement.
In a 2008 interview, Downey stated that his time in prison changed his political point of view somewhat, saying: “I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can’t. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics ever since.” However, when asked about the quote in a 2015 interview to promote Avengers: Age of Ultron, he denied that his previous statement reflected any longstanding beliefs on his part, and stated: “I wouldn’t say that I’m a Republican or a liberal or a Democrat.”
Downey serves on the board of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition.
In January 2020, during the promotions of his film Dolittle, Downey announced that he had made the decision to adopt a vegan diet, in response to the debate about the climate crisis, stating that “I’m a one-man carbon footprint nightmare colossus” and believes he can do his part to contribute. Downey previously announced his opening of The Footprint Coalition, an organization he launched to reduce carbon footprints around the world using advanced technology.
Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, 57 year old Robert Downey, Jr has a net worth of $300 million.
He earned a total of $345.5 million playing the role of Iron Man; $500 thousand in Iron Man I, Iron Man II -$10 million, Iron Man III – $75 million, The Avengers $50 million ($10 million base + $40 million backend bonus), Avengers: Age of Ultron $40 million, Captain America: Civil War $40 million, Spider-Man Homecoming $15 million, Avengers:Infinity War $40 million, Avengers: End Game $75 million.
The role made him one of the highest-paid actors in the history of Hollywood.
Robert owns a number of homes in the Los Angeles area. In total, Robert’s property portfolio is likely worth $40-50 million alone.
He has owned a $4 million home in Santa Monica since 2012. In 2009 he spent $13.44 million to buy a seven-acre estate in Malibu that features equestrian facilities. He owns a different house in Malibu that he bought in 2017 for $4 million. He owns several residential and commercial properties in Venice, California, a $2.5 million home in the Pacific Palisades, and a beachfront home in Manhattan beach
