Robert Downey Jr.

Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965)^[1] is an American actor. One of his most famous roles is Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2008-2019). He played Lewis Strauss in the 2023 Christopher Nolan movie Oppenheimer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and BAFTA Award for this role.

Robert Downey Jr.
Downey at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con
Born	Robert John Downey Jr. (1965-04-04) April 4, 1965 (age 59) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupations	Actor producer
Years active	1970–present
Spouses	Deborah Falconer ​ ​ (m. 1992; div. 2004)​ Susan Levin ​ (m. 2005)​
Partner(s)	Sarah Jessica Parker (1983–1991)
Children	3
Parent	Robert Downey Sr. (father)

Personal life

Downey was born in Manhattan, New York City, the younger of two children. His father, Robert Downey Sr. (1936 - 2021), was an actor, writer, producer, cinematographer, and director of underground films, and his mother, Elsie (nee Ford) (1934 - 2014), was also an actress and appeared in Downey, Sr.'s movies. His paternal grandfather was of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry and his paternal grandmother was of Irish Canadian and Hungarian Jewish ancestry. His mother is of Scottish, English, German, and Swiss German ancestry.^[2][3][4] His father was born "Robert Elias", and changed his last name to "Downey" (after his stepfather James Downey), when he was a minor and wanted to enlist in the Army.^[3][5] He and his older sister, Allyson, grew up in Greenwich Village.^[6]

Soundtrack appearances

Year	Song	Soundtrack	Notes
1992	"Smile"	Chaplin OST	On The Futurist
1993	"The Star-Spangled Banner"	Heart and Souls OST	With B.B. King
2000	"White Christmas"	Ally McBeal: A Very Ally Christmas	With Vonda Shepard
2000	"River"	Ally McBeal: A Very Ally Christmas
2001	"Every Breath You Take"	Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life Featuring Vonda Shepard	With Sting
2001	"Chances Are"	Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life Featuring Vonda Shepard	With Vonda Shepard
2001	"Snakes"	Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life Featuring Vonda Shepard
2003	"In My Dreams"	The Singing Detective OST
2004	"In My Dreams"	The Futurist
2005	"Broken"	Kiss Kiss Bang Bang OST	On The Futurist

Filmography

Movie

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1970	Pound	Puppy		[7]
1972	Greaser's Palace	Unnamed Quasimodo-like child		[8]
1975	Moment to Moment	Himself	Uncredited; also co-producer Aka Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight	[9]
1980	Up the Academy	Boy on Soccer Team	Uncredited	[10]
1983	Baby It's You	Stewart		[7]
1984	Firstborn	Lee		[11]
1985	Tuff Turf	Jimmy Parker		[12]
1985	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	Punk Party Crasher	Uncredited	[13]
1985	Weird Science	Ian		[14]
1985	Deadwait		Short	[15]
1986	Back to School	Derek Lutz		[14]
1987	The Pick-up Artist	Jack Jericho		[14]
1987	Less Than Zero	Julian Wells		[11]
1988	Johnny Be Good	Leo Wiggins		[14]
1988	Rented Lips	Wolf Dangler		[14]
1988	1969	Ralph Karr		[14]
1989	That's Adequate	Albert Einstein		[16]
1989	True Believer	Roger Baron		[14]
1989	Chances Are	Alex Finch		[17]
1990	Air America	Billy Covington		[18]
1991	Too Much Sun	Reed Richmond		[19]
1991	Soapdish	David Seton Barnes		[20]
1992	Chaplin	Charlie Chaplin		[21]
1993	Heart and Souls	Thomas Reilly		[22]
1993	The Last Party	Himself	Also writer	[23]
1993	Short Cuts	Bill Bush		[24]
1994	Hail Caesar	Jerry		[25]
1994	Natural Born Killers	Wayne Gale		[26]
1994	Only You	Peter Wright / Damon Bradley		[27]
1995	Richard III	Earl Rivers		[28]
1995	Home for the Holidays	Tommy Larson		[29]
1995	Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree	Mr. Willowby		[30]
1995	Restoration	Robert Merivel		[31]
1997	Danger Zone	Jim Scott		[32]
1997	One Night Stand	Charlie		[33]
1997	Two Girls and a Guy	Blake Allen		[34]
1997	Hugo Pool	Franz Mazur		[35]
1998	The Gingerbread Man	Clyde Pell		[36]
1998	U.S. Marshals	Special Agent John Royce		[18]
1999	In Dreams	Vivian Thompson		[37]
1999	Friends & Lovers	Hans		[38]
1999	Bowfinger	Jerry Renfro		[39]
1999	Black and White	Terry Donager		[40]
2000	Wonder Boys	Terry Crabtree		[41]
2002	Lethargy	Animal therapist	Short	[42]
2003	Whatever We Do	Bobby	Short	[43]
2003	The Singing Detective	Dan Dark		[11]
2003	Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin	Charles Chaplin		[44]
2003	Gothika	Pete Graham		[45]
2004	Eros	Nick Penrose	Segment: "Equilibrium"	[46]
2005	Game 6	Steven Schwimmer		[47]
2005	Kiss Kiss Bang Bang	Harry Lockhart		[18]
2005	The Outsider	Himself	Documentary	[48]
2005	Good Night, and Good Luck	Joseph Wershba		[49]
2005	Hubert Selby Jr	Narrator	Documentary	[50]
2006	A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints	Dito Montiel	Also co-producer	[51]
2006	The Shaggy Dog	Dr. Kozak		[52]
2006	A Scanner Darkly	James Barris		[53]
2006	Fur	Lionel Sweeney		[54]
2007	Zodiac	Paul Avery		[55]
2007	Lucky You	Telephone Jack	Cameo	[36]
2008	Charlie Bartlett	Principal Nathan Gardner		[56]
2008	Iron Man	Tony Stark / Iron Man		[57]
2008	The Incredible Hulk		Post-credits scene	[58]
2008	Tropic Thunder	Kirk Lazarus / Sgt. Lincoln Osiris		[18]
2009	The Soloist	Steve Lopez		[59]
2009	Sherlock Holmes	Sherlock Holmes		[18]
2010	Iron Man 2	Tony Stark / Iron Man		[60]
2010	Love & Distrust	Rob	Segment: "Auto Motives"	[61]
2010	Due Date	Peter Highman		[62]
2011	Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows	Sherlock Holmes		[63]
2012	The Avengers	Tony Stark / Iron Man		[64]
2013	Iron Man 3			[65]
2014	Chef	Marvin		[66]
2014	The Judge	Hank Palmer	Also executive producer	[18]
2015	Avengers: Age of Ultron	Tony Stark / Iron Man		[65]
2016	Captain America: Civil War			[65]
2017	Spider-Man: Homecoming			[67]
2018	Avengers: Infinity War
2019	Avengers: Endgame
2020	Dolittle	Dr. Dolittle
2021	Black Widow	Tony Stark /Iron Man
2021	All-Star Weekend	Mexican		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1985	Saturday Night Live	Cast member	18 episodes	[14]
1985	Mussolini: The Untold Story	Bruno Mussolini	Mini-series	[68]
1996	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Robert Downey Jr./Fiona Apple"	[69]
2000–02	Ally McBeal	Larry Paul	25 episodes	[70]
2005	Family Guy	Patrick Pewterschmidt (voice)	Episode: "The Fat Guy Strangler"	[69]
2021	What If...?	Tony Stark /Iron Man	Guest star Recording voice acting

Video game

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2008	Iron Man	Tony Stark	Iron Man's dialogue filled in by Stephen Stanton	[71]
2014	Iron Man 3: The Official Game

References

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2. "Robert Downey, Jr". 26 December 2007.
3. Diamond, Jamie. (December 20, 1992). "FILM; Robert Downey Jr. Is Chaplin (on Screen) and a Child (Off)". New York Times.
4. Stated on Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., PBS, April 22, 2012
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6. "Actor's toughest role". CNN. 2004. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
7. Lily Rothman (1 July 2014). "Robert Downey Jr.'s First-Ever Movie Appearance Was Pretty Absurd". Time. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
8. Paul Green (2009). Encyclopedia of Weird Western: Supernatural and Science Fiction Elements in Novels, Pulps, Comics, Films, Television, and Games. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., Publishers. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-7864-4390-1.
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13. Jessica Roake (20 September 2013). "How 1985's Girls Just Want to Have Fun Set the Template for All Future Dance Movies". Vulture. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
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16. Riper, A. Bowdoin Van (2011). A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists and Inventors in American Film and TV since 1930. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. Group. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-8108-8129-7.
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29. Roger Ebert (3 November 1995). "Home for The Holidays Movie Review (1995)". Roger Ebert. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
30. Lawrie Mifflin (26 November 1995). "Signoff;They're Not All Just Merry Little Reruns". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
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32. "Danger Zone Review". Entertainment Weekly. 17 January 1997. Archived from the original on 14 September 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
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66. Inkoo Kang (7 May 2014). "'Chef' Review: Jon Favreau Cooks for Himself, But Where's the Flavor?". The Wrap. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
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70. Steve Vineberg (18 March 2001). "Television/Radio; Delivering Something Real To 'Ally McBeal'". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
71. "Iron Man Video Game Cast Revealed!". Marvel. 21 March 2008. Retrieved 29 August 2014.

Other websites

• Robert Downey Jr. on IMDb
• Robert Downey, Jr interview at www.reviewgraveyard.com
• Robert Downey Jr. LiveJournal Community
• https://www.celebszone.com/robert-downey-jr-quotes/ Archived 2020-10-22 at the Wayback Machine on https://www.celebszone.com/ Archived 2020-10-22 at the Wayback Machine