Robert Downey Jr. Through the Years: His Life in Photos

Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr. is now certainly one of the highest-grossing actors of all time, however he went on a rollercoaster journey to cement his status as a Hollywood legend.

Born in April 1965, Downey Jr. is the younger of two children shared by way of the overdue Robert Downey Sr., an actor and filmmaker, and Elsie Ann Ford, an actress. Long sooner than he become Tony Stark, Downey Jr. made his acting debut in his father’s  film Pound at the age of 5 and held a small position simply a few years later in 1972’s Greaser’s Palace.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t simply acting talent that the father and son shared. The late Downey Sr. struggled with substance abuse and let Downey Jr. check out marijuana when he was once just 6 years old.

“I passed him a joint,” Downey Sr. shared in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2000. “And all at once knew I had made a horrible, stupid mistake.”

Downey Jr. battled drug dependancy due to growing up in a household where he claimed “everyone was once doing medicine” in a 1988 interview for Karen Hardy’s book The New Breed: Actors Coming of Age. He even said that substance abuse used to be something he bonded with his father over.

“When my dad and I'd do drugs together,” the Chaplin actor shared Hardy’s guide. “It was like him trying to express his love for me in the most effective means he knew.”

After being fired from Ally McBeal in 2001 and given the selection of prison or rehabilitation, Downey Jr. learned he had to get sober and spent the subsequent two years in rehab. He landed his first film function in The Singing Detective after getting sober and starred in Gothika the place he met future spouse, Susan Levin.

The two married in 2005 and he credit her for helping him on his sobriety journey. Filming for Gothika wrapped up and Downey Jr. was tempted to relapse, however Levin gave him an ultimatum.

“I mentioned straight away, ‘This isn’t gonna paintings,’’ Levin shared with Bazaar in 2009. “I made it transparent that to stay with me, nothing may just occur.”

Something clicked for Downey Jr., because the subsequent factor he did was once prevent at a Burger King on the Pacific Coast Highway and threw his medicine into the ocean.

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“He all the time says that we turned into this third thing after we were given together,” Levin added. “Something that neither of us could have grow to be by ourselves — and I think that’s true.”

Downey Jr. went on to famous person in Tropic Thunder and took on his largest position so far, Tony Stark in Iron Man.

Keep scrolling to see the highlights of Downey Jr.’s occupation in photos:

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