Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965)[1] is
an American actor and producer. His career has been characterized by critical
and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance
abuse and legal troubles, before a resurgence of commercial success in
middle age. In 2008, Downey was named by Time magazine among
the 100 most influential people in the world,[2][3] and from 2013 to
2015, he was listed by Forbes as Hollywood's highest-paid
actor.[2][3]
Robert Downey Jr.

Downey in 2014
Born
Robert John Downey Jr.
April 4, 1965 (age 56)
New York City, U.S.
EducationSanta Monica High SchoolOccupation
Actorproducer
Years active1970–present
Works
Full listSpouse(s)
Deborah Falconer
(m. 1992; div. 2004)
Susan Levin
(m. 2005)
Partner(s)Sarah Jessica
Parker (1984–1991)Children3Parent(s)Robert Downey
Sr. (father)RelativesJim Downey (uncle)AwardsFull listSignature
At the age of five, he made his acting debut in 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, bond completion companies would not insure
Downey, until Mel Gibson paid the insurance bond for the 2003
film The Singing Detective.[4] 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). 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).
Early life and family
Downey was born 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.[5] Downey's father was of
half Lithuanian-Jewish, one-quarter Hungarian-Jewish, and one-quarter
Irish descent,[6][7][8][9] while Downey's mother had Scottish, German, and
Swiss ancestry.[10][11][12] Robert's original family name was Elias which
was changed by his father to enlist in the Army.[13] Downey and his
older sister Allyson grew up in Greenwich Village.[14]
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.[14] 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".[15][16]
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).[11] At
the age of 10, he was living in England and studied classical
ballet as part of a larger curriculum.[17][18] 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.[19]
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.[20]
1983–1995: Beginnings and critical acclaim
Downey began building upon theater roles, including in the
short-lived off-Broadway musical American Passion at the Joyce
Theater in 1983, produced by Norman Lear. In 1985, he was part of the new,
younger cast hired for Saturday Night Live, but following a year of poor
ratings and criticism of the new cast's comedic talents, he and most of the new
crew were dropped and replaced.[19] Rolling Stone magazine named
Downey the worst SNL cast member in its entire run, stating that the
"Downey Fail sums up everything that
makes SNL great."[21] That same year, Downey had a dramatic
acting breakthrough when he played James Spader's
character's sidekick in Tuff Turf and then a bully in John
Hughes's Weird Science. He was considered for the role of Duckie in John
Hughes's film Pretty in Pink (1986),[22] but his first lead role
was with Molly Ringwald in The Pick-up Artist (1987).
Because of these and other coming-of-age films Downey did during the
1980s, he is sometimes named as a member of the Brat Pack.[19][23]
In 1987, Downey played Julian Wells, a drug-addicted rich
boy whose life rapidly spirals out of his control, in the film version of
the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero. His performance,
described by Janet Maslin in The New York Times as
"desperately moving",[24] was widely praised, though Downey has
said that for him "the role was like the ghost of Christmas
Future" since his drug habit resulted in his becoming an
"exaggeration of the character" in real life.[25] Zero drove
Downey into films with bigger budgets and names, such as Chances
Are (1989) with Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O'Neal, Air
America (1990) with Mel Gibson, and Soapdish (1991)
with Sally Field, Kevin Kline, and Whoopi Goldberg.[26][27][28]
In 1992, he starred as Charlie
Chaplin in Chaplin, a role for which he prepared extensively,
learning how to play the violin as well as tennis left-handed. He had a
personal coach in order to help him imitate Chaplin's posture, and a way of
carrying himself.[29] The role garnered Downey an Academy
Award nomination for Best Actor at the Academy Awards 65th
ceremony, losing to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.[30]
In 1993, he appeared in the films Heart and
Souls with Alfre Woodard and Kyra
Sedgwick and Short Cuts with Matthew Modine and Julianne
Moore, along with a documentary that he wrote about the 1992 presidential
campaigns titled The Last Party (1993).[31][32][33] He starred
in the 1994 films, Only You with Marisa Tomei, and Natural
Born Killers with Woody Harrelson.[34][35] He then subsequently
appeared in Restoration (1995), Richard
III (1995), Two Girls and a Guy (1997),[36] as Special
Agent John Royce in U.S. Marshals (1998), and in Black and
White (1999).[37][38][39][40]
1996–2001: Career troubles

Downey at the premiere of Air America, 1990
From 1996 through 2001, Downey was arrested numerous times
on charges related to drugs including cocaine, heroin, and
marijuana.[41] He went through drug treatment programs unsuccessfully,
explaining in 1999 to a judge: "It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth,
and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun
metal." He said he had been addicted to drugs since the age of eight, due
to the fact that his father, also an addict, had been giving them to him.[42]
In April 1996, Downey was arrested for possession of heroin,
cocaine, and an unloaded .357 Magnum handgun while he was speeding
down Sunset Boulevard. A month later, while on parole, he trespassed into
a neighbor's home while under the influence of a controlled substance, and fell
asleep in one of the beds.[43][44] He received three years' probation and
was ordered to undergo compulsory drug testing. In 1997, he missed one of the
court-ordered drug tests and had to spend six months in the Los Angeles County
jail.[45]
After Downey missed another required drug test in 1999, he
was arrested again. Despite Downey's lawyer, Robert Shapiro, assembling
the same team of lawyers that had successfully defended O.J.
Simpson during his criminal trial for murder,[42] Downey was
sentenced to a three-year prison term at the California Substance Abuse
Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California. At the
time of the arrest, all of Downey's film projects had wrapped and were close to
release. He had been hired to provide the voice of the devil on
the NBC animated television series God, the Devil and Bob, but
was fired when he failed to attend rehearsals.[46][47]
After spending nearly a year in the California
Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Downey, on condition of
posting a $5,000 bail, was unexpectedly freed when a judge ruled that his
collective time in incarceration facilities (from the initial 1996 arrests) had
qualified him for early release.[14] A week after his 2000 release, Downey
joined the cast of the hit television series Ally McBeal, playing a new
love interest.[48] He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and won the Golden
Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television
Film.[49][50] He also appeared as a writer and singer on Vonda
Shepard's Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life album, and sang
with Sting a duet of "Every Breath You Take" in an episode
of the series. Despite the apparent success, Downey claimed that his
performance on the series was overrated and said, "It was my lowest point
in terms of addictions. At that stage, I didn't give a fuck whether I ever
acted again."[25] In January 2001, Downey was scheduled to play the
role of Hamlet in a Los Angeles stage production directed
by Mel Gibson.[51]
Before the end of his first season on Ally McBeal, over
the Thanksgiving 2000 holiday, Downey was arrested when his room
at Merv Griffin's Hotel and Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs, California,
was searched by the police, who were responding to an anonymous 911 call.
Downey was under the influence of a controlled substance and in possession of
cocaine and Valium.[52][53] Despite the fact that, if convicted, he
would have faced a prison sentence of up to four years and eight months, he
signed on to appear in at least eight more Ally McBeal episodes.[54]
In April 2001, while Downey was on parole, a Los Angeles
police officer found him wandering barefooted in Culver City. He was
arrested for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, but was released
a few hours later,[55] even though tests showed he had cocaine in his
system.[56] After this last arrest, Ally McBeal executives
ordered last-minute rewrites and reshoots and fired Downey, despite the fact
that Downey's character had resuscitated Ally McBeal's
ratings.[57] The Culver City arrest also cost him a role in the
high-profile film America's Sweethearts,[56] and the subsequent
incarceration prompted Gibson to cancel his Hamlet production. In
July 2001, Downey pleaded no contest to the Palm Springs charges,
avoiding jail time. Instead, he was sent into drug rehabilitation and received
three years of probation, benefiting from California Proposition 36, which
had been passed the year before with the aim of helping nonviolent drug
offenders overcome their addictions instead of sending them to jail.[14][58]
The book Conversations with Woody Allen reports
that director Woody Allen wanted to cast Downey and Winona
Ryder in his film Melinda and Melinda in 2005, but was unable to
do so, because he could not get insurance on them, stating, "We couldn't
get bonded. The completion bonding companies would not bond the
picture unless we could insure them. We were heartbroken because I had worked
with Winona before [on Celebrity] and thought she was perfect for this and
wanted to work with her again. And I had always wanted to work with Bob Downey
and always thought he was a huge talent."[59]
In a December 18, 2000, article
for People magazine entitled "Bad to Worse", Downey's
stepmother Rosemary told author Alex Tresnlowski that Downey had been diagnosed
with bipolar disorder "a few years ago" and added that this
was "the reason he has a hard time staying sober. What hasn't been tried
is medication and intensive psychotherapy".[60] In the same
article, Dr. Manijeh Nikakhtar, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and co-author
of Addiction or Self-Medication: The Truth, claimed she received a letter
from Downey in 1999, during his time at Corcoran II, asking for advice on his
condition. She discovered that "no one had done a complete [psychiatric]
evaluation [on him] ... I asked him flat out if he thought he was bipolar, and
he said, 'Oh yeah. There are times I spend a lot of money and I'm hyperactive,
and there are other times I'm down.'"[60] In an article for the March
2007 issue of Esquire, Downey stated that he wanted to address "this
whole thing about the bipolar" after receiving a phone call from "the
Bipolar Association" asking him about being bipolar. When Downey denied he
had ever said he was bipolar, the caller quoted the People article,
to which Downey replied, "'No! Dr. Malibusian said [I said I was
bipolar] ... ', and they go, 'Well, it's been written, so we're going to quote
it.'"[61] Downey flatly denied being
"depressed or manic" and that previous attempts to diagnose
him with any kind of psychiatric or mood disorder have
always been skewed because "the guy I was seeing didn't know I was
smokin' crack in his bathroom. You can't make a diagnosis until
somebody's sober."[61]
2001–2007: Career comeback

Downey at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con
International promoting Iron Man
After five years of substance abuse, arrests, rehab, and
relapse, Downey was ready to work toward a full recovery from drugs and return
to his career. In discussing his failed attempts to control his addictive
behavior in the past, Downey told Oprah Winfrey in November 2004 that
"when someone says, 'I really wonder if maybe I should go to rehab?' Well,
uh, you're a wreck, you just lost your job, and your wife left you. Uh, you
might want to give it a shot."[62] He added that after his last
arrest in April 2001, when he knew he would likely be facing another stint in
prison or another form of incarceration such as court-ordered rehab, "I
said, 'You know what? I don't think I can continue doing this.' And I reached
out for help, and I ran with it. You can reach out for help in kind of a
half-assed way and you'll get it and you won't take advantage of it. It's not
that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems ... what's hard is
to decide to do it."[62]
Downey got his first post-rehabilitation acting job in
August 2001, lip-syncing in the video for Elton John's single "I Want
Love".[63] Video director Sam Taylor-Wood shot 16 takes of
the video and used the last one because, according to John, Downey looked
completely relaxed and "The way he underplays it is fantastic".[64]
Downey was able to return to the big screen after Mel
Gibson, who had been a close friend to Downey since both had co-starred
in Air America, paid Downey's insurance bond for the 2003 film The
Singing Detective (directed by his Back to School co-star Keith
Gordon).[4] Gibson's gamble paved the way for Downey's comeback and Downey
returned to mainstream films in the mid-2000s with Gothika, for which
producer Joel Silver withheld 40% of his salary until after
production wrapped as insurance against his addictive behavior. Similar clauses
have become standard in his contracts since.[65] Silver, who was getting
closer to Downey as he dated his assistant Susan Levin, also got the actor
the leading role in the comedy thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the
directorial debut of screenwriter Shane Black.[66]
After Gothika, Downey was cast in a number of leading
and supporting roles, including well-received work in a number of
semi-independent films: A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Good
Night, and Good Luck, Richard Linklater's
dystopian, rotoscoped A Scanner Darkly (in which Downey plays
the role of a drug addict), and Steven Shainberg's fictional biographical
film of Diane Arbus, Fur, where Downey's character represented the
two biggest influences on Arbus's professional life, Lisette
Model and Marvin Israel.[67] Downey also received great notice
for his roles in more mainstream fare such as Kiss Kiss Bang
Bang and Disney's poorly received The Shaggy Dog.[68]
On November 23, 2004, Downey released his debut musical
album, The Futurist, on Sony Classical, for which he designed the
cover art and designed the track listing label on the CD with his son
Indio.[69] The album received mixed reviews,[70][71] but Downey
stated in 2006 that he probably will not do another album, as he felt that the
energy he put into doing the album was not compensated.[72]
In 2006, Downey returned to television when he
did voice acting on Family Guy in the episode "The Fat
Guy Strangler". Downey had previously telephoned the show's production
staff and asked if he could produce or assist in an episode creation, as his
son Indio is a fan of the show. The producers of the show accepted the offer
and created the character of Patrick Pewterschmidt, Lois Griffin's
long lost, mentally disturbed brother, for Downey.[73]
Downey signed on with publishers HarperCollins to
write a memoir, which in 2006, was already being billed as a "candid look
at the highs and lows of his life and career". In 2008, however, Downey
returned his advance to the publishers, and canceled the book without further
comment.[74]
In 2007, Downey appeared in David Fincher's mystery
thriller Zodiac, which was based on a true story. He played the role
of San Francisco Chronicle journalist Paul Avery, who was
reporting the Zodiac Killer case.[75]
2008–present: Iron Man, blockbuster films and further
success

Downey promoting Iron Man in Mexico
City in 2008
With all of the critical success Downey had experienced
throughout his career, he had not appeared in a "blockbuster"
film. That changed in 2008 when Downey starred in two critically and
commercially successful films, Iron Man and Tropic Thunder. In
the article Ben Stiller wrote for Downey's entry in the 2008 edition
of The Time 100, he offered an observation on Downey's commercially
successful summer at the box office:
Yes, Downey is Iron Man, but he really is Actor
Man ... In the realm where box office is irrelevant and talent is king,
the realm that actually means something, he has always ruled, and finally this
summer he gets to have his cake and let us eat him up all the way to the
multiplex, where his mastery is in full effect.
— Ben Stiller, The 2008 Time 100, entry No. 60,
"Robert Downey Jr."[76]
In 2007, Downey was cast as the title character in
the film Iron Man,[77] with director Jon Favreau explaining
the choice by stating: "Downey wasn't the most obvious choice, but he
understood what makes the character tick. He found a lot of his own life
experience in 'Tony Stark'."[78] Favreau insisted on having Downey as
he repeatedly claimed that Downey would be to Iron
Man what Johnny Depp is to the Pirates of the
Caribbean series: a lead actor who could both elevate the quality of the
film and increase the public's interest in it.[43][79][80][81] For the
role, Downey had to gain more than 20 pounds (9 kilograms) of muscle in five
months to look like he "had the power to forge iron".[82]
Iron Man was globally released between April 30 and May
3, 2008, grossing over $585 million worldwide[83] and receiving rave
reviews which cited Downey's performance as a highlight of the
film.[84][85][86] By October 2008, Downey had agreed to appear as Iron Man
in two Iron Man sequels, as part of the Iron Man franchise, as
well as The Avengers, featuring the superhero team that Stark joins, based
on Marvel's comic book series The Avengers.[87] He first reprised the
role in a small appearance as Iron Man's alter ego Tony Stark in the 2008
film The Incredible Hulk, as a part of Marvel Studios' depicting the
same Marvel Universe on film by providing continuity among the
movies.[88]
After Iron Man, Downey appeared alongside Ben Stiller
and Jack Black in the Stiller-directed Tropic Thunder. The three
actors play a Hollywood archetype – with Downey playing self-absorbed
multi-Oscar-winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus – as
they star in an extremely expensive Vietnam-era film called Tropic
Thunder. Lazarus undergoes a "controversial skin pigmentation
procedure" in order to take on the role
of African-American platoon sergeant Lincoln Osiris, which required
Downey to wear dark makeup and a wig. Both Stiller and Downey feared Downey's
portrayal of the character could become controversial:
Stiller says that he and Downey always stayed focused on the
fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African Americans.
"I was trying to push it as far as you can within reality", Stiller
explains. "I had no idea how people would respond to it". Stiller
screened a rough cut of the film [in March 2008] and it scored high with
African Americans. He was relieved at the reaction. "It seems people
really embrace it", he said.[89]
When asked by Harry Smith on CBS's The Early
Show who his model was for Lazarus, Downey laughed before responding,
"Sadly, my sorry-ass self."[90]
Released in the United States on August 13,
2008, Tropic Thunder received good reviews with 83% of reviews
positive and an average normalized score of 71, according to the review
aggregator websites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic,
respectively.[91][92] It earned US$26 million in its North American
opening weekend and retained the number one position for its first three weekends
of release. The film grossed $180 million in theaters before its release
on home video on November 18, 2008. Downey was nominated for the Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Lazarus.[93]

Downey with Rachel McAdams at the 2009 San
Diego Comic-Con International
Opening in late April 2009 was a film Downey finished in
mid-2008, The Soloist. The film was delayed from a November 2008 release
by Paramount Pictures due to the studio's tight end-of-year release
schedule.[94] Critics who had seen the film in 2008 were mentioning it as
a possible Academy Award candidate.[95] Downey picked up an
Academy Award nomination for the 2008 release year for his role in Tropic
Thunder.[96]
The first role Downey accepted after Iron Man was
the title character in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock
Holmes. Warner Bros. released it on December 25, 2009.[97] The
film set several box office records in the United States for a Christmas Day
release, beating the previous record-holder, 2008's Marley & Me, by
nearly $10M, and finished second to Avatar in a record-setting
Christmas weekend box office. Sherlock Holmes ended up being
the 8th highest-grossing film of 2009.[98][99] When Downey won the
Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy from the
Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his role as Sherlock Holmes, he noted
in his acceptance speech that he had prepared no remarks because "Susan
Downey (his wife and Sherlock Holmes producer) told me that Matt
Damon (nominated for his role in The Informant!) was going to win so
don't bother preparing a speech".[100]

Waxwork of Downey (as Sherlock Holmes) on display
at Madame Tussauds London
Downey returned as Tony Stark in the first of two planned
sequels to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, which released in May
2010. Iron Man 2 grossed over $623M worldwide, becoming the 7th
highest-grossing film of 2010.[101] Downey's other commercial film release
of 2010 was the comedy road film, Due Date. The movie,
co-starring Zach Galifianakis, was released in November 2010[102] and
grossed over $211M worldwide, making it the 36th highest-grossing movie of
2010.[103] Downey's sole 2011 film credit was the sequel to the 2009
version of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which
opened worldwide on December 16, 2011.[104]
In 2012, Downey reprised the role of Tony Stark in The
Avengers. The film received positive reviews[105] and was highly
successful at the box office, becoming the third highest-grossing film of all
time both in the United States and worldwide.[106] His film,
the David Dobkin-directed dramedy The Judge,[107] a project
co-produced by his production company Team Downey, was the opening film at
the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014.[108] Downey
played Tony Stark again in Iron Man 3 (2013),[109] Avengers: Age
of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil
War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017),[110] Avengers:
Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) [111] and
three of his scenes from the first Avengers and Avengers:
Endgame also appear in the first episode of Loki.[112]
Downey hosted The Age of A.I., a YouTube documentary
series released in 2019.[113] In 2020, he starred in Dolittle,
playing the titular character, depicted in the film as a 19th-century
Welsh veterinarian who can communicate with animals. This was the second film
from Team Downey. It was a box office disappointment, and received
negative reviews from critics, who called it "too long [and]
lifeless."[114]
Upcoming projects
Downey will appear in
the sports comedy drama film All-Star Weekend,
directed by Jamie Foxx.[115] He will reprise his role as Holmes in a
third film, scheduled for release on December 22, 2021 but it is put on hold
indefinitely according to director Dexter Fletcher.[116] [117]
Personal life
Relationships and family
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.[121]
He married actress and singer Deborah Falconer on
May 29, 1992, after a 42-day courtship.[122] Their son, Indio Falconer
Downey, was born in September 1993.[123] 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.[122] Downey
and Falconer finalized their divorce on April 26, 2004.

Downey and his wife Susan at the 2010 Academy
Awards
In 2003, Downey met producer Susan Levin, an Executive
Vice President of Production at Joel Silver's film company, Silver
Pictures on the set of Gothika.[4] Though Susan twice turned
down his amorous advances, she and Downey did quietly strike up a romance
during production.[124] Despite Susan's worries that the romance would not
last after the completion of shooting because "he's an actor; I have a
real job",[124] the couple's relationship continued after production
wrapped on Gothika, and Downey proposed to Susan on the night before her
thirtieth birthday.[124] In August 2005, the couple were married, in
a Jewish ceremony, at Amagansett, New
York.[125][126] A tattoo on one of his biceps reads "Suzie
Q" in tribute to her.[127] The Downeys’ first child, a son named Exton
Elias, was born in February 2012,[128] and their second, a daughter named
Avri Roel, was born in November 2014.[129][130][131]
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 DUI.[132] 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.'"[133] 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.[134]
Sobriety
Downey says he has been drug-free since July
2003,[135] 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,[25] the martial art he
learned from Eric Oram, who is also a fight consultant in several of
Downey's movies.[136][137] Oram was Downey's personal fight coordinator
in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil
War.[138] In December 2015, Downey received a full and unconditional
pardon from Governor of California Jerry Brown for his prior
drug convictions.[139][140] Oram wrote a letter in support of Downey's
pardon to Governor Brown.[141] 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.”[142]
Religious beliefs
Downey has described his religious beliefs as "Jewish
Buddhist",[143] and he is reported to have
consulted astrologers.[144] In the past, Downey has been interested
in Christianity and the Hare Krishna movement.[143]
Political views
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."[145] However, when asked about the quote in a 2015 interview
to promote Avengers: Age of Ultron, he denied that his previous statement
reflected any long-standing beliefs on his part, and stated: "I wouldn't
say that I'm a Republican or a liberal or a Democrat."[146]
Downey serves on the board of the Anti-Recidivism
Coalition.[147]
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"[148] 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.[149] The
Footprint Coalition promotes technologies that protect the environment such as
French insect-farming startup Ynsect,[150] the bio-based alternative to
plastic manufacturer RWDC,[151] and bamboo toilet paper manufacturer Cloud
Paper.[152][153]
