60th birthday Robert Downey Jr.: Hollywood’s stand-up in Hollywood

If one had predicted at the turn of the millennium that Robert Downey Jr. would one day move into one of the best paid actors in the world, to the celebrated comic film star and Oscar winner, one would have been officially declared crazy. So Downey Jr., who turns 60 on April 4, had his impressive talent flashed beforehand. At least as often, however, his self -destructive side came to light, because of which he would have disappeared around a hair in the sinking (or worse). A look back at a career that deserves the term “roller coaster ride”.

In retrospectively, the later heights and depths in the life of Robert Downey Jr. were already marked in his earliest youth. His father worked as a filmmaker, and his mother mainly appeared in his films as an actress. In short: As with so many stars, the way to entertainment business was practically the takeover of the family business for Downey Jr..

But he also got to know the dark side from childhood. Depending on the success or failure of the films, the family stood into prosperity, sometimes she lived an existence in poverty. In addition, the father of today’s world star was difficult to drug -dependent and did not hide the addiction from his son, but even encouraged him to take part. the Robert Downey Sr., who died in 2021, gave unaired, but at least to be reorganized by putting his boy’s first joint in his boy at the age of six. 53 years later, at the moment of his greatest triumph at the Academy Awards 2024, when he held his first Oscar in his hands for “Oppenheimer”, Downey Jr. grabbed the usual self -irony in this regard: “I would like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy – in this order.”

In the mid -1980s and at the beginning of 20, Downey Jr. belonged to a ranks of promising young actresses, who was quickly appointed “Brat Pack” based on the “Rat Pack” around Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Co. In this phase of his work, he sometimes played in light coming-of-age strips, but sometimes also in deep dramas, for which he received critic laurels.

A role with a signal effect was his part in “below zero”, the film adaptation of the novel of the same name of “American Psycho” Wonder Child Bret Easton Ellis. Downey Jr. mimics in it a highly indebted, cocaine -dependent young man who ends up succumbs to his addictions – and perishes on an overdose …

Almost five years later, the highlight of his career that had been going on until then: For the biopic “Chaplin”, the actor received his first of three Oscar nominations so far and his first as the main actor, including in addition to heavyweights such as Clint Eastwood and Denzel Washington. In the end, they had to subordinate all of another film legend – Al Pacino won for “the fragrance of women”.

The wrong word would be impressive in this context. However, it was always astonishing how Downey Jr. knew how to dominate in the 1990s despite his increasing drug escapades in Hollywood. In 1999 alone, a fateful year for him, he was seen in four productions, including in the star-picked ensemble drama “Black and White”.

His relationships broke against it. Sarah Jessica Parker, with whom he was together for eight years, pulled the ripcord in 1991 due to his drug addiction. His marriage to Deborah Falconer, from which a son jointly emerged, also broke during this time.

As early as 1996, Downey Jr. had been arrested for the first time due to possessions of various drugs such as cocaine and heroin. After several therapies, he suffered a difficult relapse in 1999, which brought him a prison sentence of three years behind bars of the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison. Because he had previously spent several months in withdrawal devices, he ultimately only had to sit in for around a year.

At that time, Robert Downey Jr. was largely medium and homeless. In addition, film studios saw him as inconceivable because all common insurance companies refused to take the risk of insure the actor. And yet he somehow landed on his feet: In the “Ally McBeal” series, he got a role that even brought him a Golden Globe a year later.

But Downey Jr. would not be Downey Jr., if he hadn’t sabotaged this comeback immediately. Hard drugs were found again, only with a lot of luck he escaped another prison sentence. But he was rid of the series role after the escapades, his figure was in a hurry from “Ally McBeal”.

The first serious comeback attempts can be found in 2003 with “Gothika” and in 2005 with “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”. But it was only in 2008 that he got out of the ashes like Phoenix – or rather like Iron Man: Jon Favreau’s film was the prelude of the phenomenon that has now been made as a MCU and with countless films and series. Downey Jr., now Clean for years, had found his parade role in the form of the extrovert multiilliarist Tony Stark, who he remained loyal to for over ten years and to “Avengers”. At times the part brought him the “Forbes” title as the best paid actor in the world. And lo and behold: Finally he did not tore his success again.

On the contrary, recently he benefited from the misstep from another actor. Jonathan Majors, who was supposed to be built as a new super villain of the MCU, was doomed to condemnate domestic violence. Marvel immediately fired him and immediately let him be forgotten by a coup: the replacement villain, fan favorite Doctor Doom, is embodied smoothly by the freshly baked Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr.!

Also in his “Oppenheimer” dances at the Oscars 2024, Robert Downey Jr. had thanked the person he was allowed to stand there: Wife Susan Downey, with whom he has been married since 2005 and has two children together, he thought with the words: “I would like my veterinarian … Thank you.