Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr. is now one of the highest-grossing actors of all time, but 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 the late Robert Downey Sr., an actor and filmmaker, and Elsie Ann Ford, an actress. Long before he became Tony Stark, Downey Jr. made his acting debut in his father’s film Pound at the age of 5 and held a small role just a couple of years later in 1972’s Greaser’s Palace.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just acting talent that the father and son shared. The late Downey Sr. struggled with substance abuse and let Downey Jr. try marijuana when he was just 6 years old.
“I passed him a joint,” Downey Sr. shared in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2000. “And suddenly knew I had made a terrible, stupid mistake.”
Downey Jr. battled drug addiction due to growing up in a household where he claimed “everyone was doing drugs” in a 1988 interview for Karen Hardy’s book The New Breed: Actors Coming of Age. He even said that substance abuse was something he bonded with his father over.
“When my dad and I would do drugs together,” the Chaplin actor shared Hardy’s book. “It was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew.”
After being fired from Ally McBeal in 2001 and given the choice of prison or rehabilitation, Downey Jr. realized he needed to get sober and spent the next two years in rehab. He landed his first film role in The Singing Detective after getting sober and starred in Gothika where he met future wife, Susan Levin.
The two married in 2005 and he credits her for helping him on his sobriety journey. Filming for Gothika wrapped up and Downey Jr. was tempted to relapse, but Levin gave him an ultimatum.
“I said immediately, ‘This isn’t gonna work,’’ Levin shared with Bazaar in 2009. “I made it clear that to stay with me, nothing could happen.”
Something clicked for Downey Jr., because the next thing he did was stop at a Burger King on the Pacific Coast Highway and threw his drugs into the ocean.
“He always says that we became this third thing when we got together,” Levin added. “Something that neither of us could have become by ourselves — and I think that’s true.”
Downey Jr. went on to star in Tropic Thunder and took on his biggest role to date, Tony Stark in Iron Man.
Keep scrolling to see the highlights of Downey Jr.’s career in photos:
