70 Fun Facts About Robert Downey Jr.

In which year was Robert Downey Jr. born?

He was born in Manhattan on April 4, 1965, into a filmmaking family, and was on screen before he started school.

At age five he made his acting debut in which film directed by his father?

His father, Robert Downey Sr., was an underground filmmaker, and his mother Elsie was an actress who appeared in his films.

What was his first credited film role, in 1983?

He had dropped out of Santa Monica High School the year before and moved back to New York to act full-time.

His breakthrough came playing a bully in which 1985 John Hughes film?

The same year he was hired for a famously short-lived, ratings-starved season of a late-night sketch show.

Which sketch show hired him in 1985, then dismissed most of its new cast after one season?

The 1985-86 season is often ranked among the show's worst; nearly the entire cast was let go the following summer.

His first leading role was in which 1987 film?

He starred opposite Molly Ringwald in that comedy, the same year a much darker role earned him serious critical notice.

Roger Ebert called his performance in which 1987 film 'so real, so subtle and so observant'?

He played a drug-addicted rich kid in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, and entered rehab for the first time shortly after filming ended.

His first Academy Award nomination came for portraying which real-life figure in 1992?

He lost the Oscar to Al Pacino but took home the BAFTA for Best Actor for the role.

In Natural Born Killers (1994) he played a sensationalist TV reporter with what name?

His Australian-accented tabloid host was modeled on the true-crime TV of the era, and Oliver Stone's film became a lightning rod for debates about screen violence.

Which 1989 comedy paired him with Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O'Neal?

He plays a man who is the reincarnation of Shepherd's late husband, one of several romantic leads he took before the 1990s went sideways.

Robert Downey Jr.'s 1996 incident of falling asleep on a neighbor's child's bed became known as what?

It came a month after he was arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded pistol while speeding down Sunset Boulevard.

In January 1998 he was briefly released from Los Angeles County Jail to film which movie?

He was serving six months after missing a court-ordered drug test, and shot his scenes with Tommy Lee Jones during a short furlough.

A week after his unexpected release from prison in 2000, he joined the cast of which TV series?

His run as lawyer Larry Paul revived the show's ratings and won him a Golden Globe, but ended after another arrest.

In April 2001 he was found wandering barefoot where, an arrest that got him fired from his TV series?

Months earlier he had been arrested in a Palm Springs hotel on Thanksgiving; the two cases together sent him back to court-ordered rehab.

His first acting job after rehab, in August 2001, was a music video for which musician?

He lip-syncs the entire song 'I Want Love' in one continuous take, walking through an empty mansion.

Which star personally paid his insurance bond so he could be cast in The Singing Detective (2003)?

The two had co-starred in Air America in 1990, and no studio would insure him at the time.

On a 2003 horror film, producer Joel Silver withheld what share of his salary against a relapse?

The money was held until filming wrapped; the shoot turned out to be life-changing for a very different reason.

He met his wife Susan, a producer, on the set of which 2003 thriller?

Halle Berry starred in the film; Susan Levin was one of its producers and reportedly turned him down twice before agreeing to a date.

Where did he marry Susan Levin in a Jewish ceremony in August 2005?

The couple later had a son in 2012 and a daughter in 2014, and run a production company together.

In which year did he marry singer and actress Deborah Falconer, his first wife?

Their son Indio was born the following year; the marriage ended in 2004 with Falconer receiving custody.

In Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) he played a journalist at which network?

George Clooney's black-and-white drama about Edward R. Murrow cast him as Joe Wershba, secretly married to a colleague played by Patricia Clarkson.

His performance as a drug addict in which 2006 rotoscoped film was praised by critics?

Richard Linklater's Philip K. Dick adaptation was shot live and then animated over, with Keanu Reeves and Woody Harrelson also in the cast.

He appeared in which 2007 David Fincher mystery thriller?

He played San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter Paul Avery opposite Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist Robert Graysmith.

Which character did he voice in a 2005 episode of Family Guy?

The character is Lois's long-lost brother, who turns out to be a serial killer of fat men; the episode was reportedly pitched after he called the show asking to appear.

Iron Man was released in US cinemas in which month and year?

It was the first film released by Marvel Studios itself, and its success launched the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.

What was Iron Man's production budget?

The film grossed more than $585 million, and by October 2008 he had signed on for two sequels.

How much muscle did he reportedly gain over five months to play Tony Stark?

Director Jon Favreau fought the studio to cast him, saying he 'understood what makes the character tick.'

Who directed Iron Man (2008)?

Favreau also plays Stark's driver and bodyguard Happy Hogan throughout the franchise.

He first reprised the role of Tony Stark with a brief appearance in which 2008 film?

Stark shows up in a bar in the final scene to tell General Ross that a team is being put together.

What was the name of the self-absorbed method actor he played in Tropic Thunder?

The five-time Oscar winner character undergoes 'pigmentation alteration' surgery for the role within the film, and the performance earned Downey a real Best Supporting Actor nomination.

In which 2009 biopic did he portray Los Angeles columnist Steve Lopez?

Jamie Foxx played Nathaniel Ayers, the Juilliard-trained homeless musician Lopez befriended.

Who directed the 2009 Sherlock Holmes in which he played the detective?

The film became the eighth-highest-grossing release of 2009 and spawned a 2011 sequel, A Game of Shadows.

Sherlock Holmes (2009) won him a Golden Globe in which category?

It was his second Golden Globe, following the supporting-actor award for Ally McBeal in 2001.

His non-Marvel film of 2010 was which road-trip comedy?

He plays an expectant father stuck driving cross-country with Zach Galifianakis; it made over $211 million on a $65 million budget.

What is the name of the production company he and his wife opened in 2010?

Its first production was the 2014 courtroom drama The Judge, with Robert Duvall as his estranged father.

In The Judge (2014), his character is a hotshot lawyer from which city?

He returns to his small Indiana hometown to defend his father, a judge accused of murder.

The Avengers (2012) grossed over how much worldwide?

At the time only Avatar and Titanic had made more; the sequel Age of Ultron added another $1.4 billion.

In Iron Man 3, Stark faces a terrorist known by what name?

The twist that Ben Kingsley's Mandarin was a hired actor was so divisive that Marvel released a short film, All Hail the King, to address it.

On which planet does Stark fight Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War?

Titan is Thanos's ruined homeworld; the fight ends with Doctor Strange trading the Time Stone for Stark's life.

Which villain was he cast to play in Avengers: Doomsday, as revealed at Comic-Con 2024?

The casting was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in 2024, five years after Stark's death in Endgame; he also plays the role in Avengers: Secret Wars.

Whom did he play in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer?

Strauss, the Atomic Energy Commission chairman who engineered Oppenheimer's downfall, finally won Downey the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He took a pay cut to appear in Oppenheimer, earning how much?

Nolan reportedly pays his principal cast the same scale fee; the film went on to gross close to a billion dollars.

Which 2024 HBO series earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination for a multi-role performance?

He plays four different white American authority figures in the adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer-winning novel.

His 2024 Broadway debut came in which play?

Ayad Akhtar's play casts him as a novelist toying with artificial intelligence; previews began September 5, 2024.

His 2023 car series that won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Lifestyle Program was titled what?

The show converts classic cars from his collection into eco-friendly builds, tying into his environmental work.

What was the title of his only studio album, released in 2004?

It debuted at number 121 on the Billboard 200; he had sung on Ally McBeal and in Chaplin's era-appropriate scenes before that.

Which actress did he date from 1984 to 1991 after they met on the set of Firstborn?

Parker has said the relationship ended largely because of his drug use; they remained on friendly terms.

Which California governor pardoned him in December 2015?

The pardon covered his 1996 drug conviction; by then he had been the world's highest-paid actor three years running.

In 2020 he founded which organization to use robotics and nanotechnology to clean up the environment?

He announced the venture at an Amazon conference in 2019, promising to help clean up the planet within a decade.

How did he describe his religious beliefs in a 2014 interview?

His father was of Lithuanian Jewish and Irish descent, and he has credited yoga and Wing Chun kung fu with helping his recovery.

According to the actor himself, since which year has he been drug-free?

He credits family, therapy, martial arts and a stop at a Burger King as turning points that year.

He dropped out of which school in 1982?

He headed back to New York at 17 to act full-time, having already appeared in several of his father's films.

His 1983 stage debut was a three-week run in which play?

It would be more than four decades before he reached Broadway.

Which 1993 fantasy comedy prompted Peter Travers to praise his 'explosive' physical comedy?

He plays a man possessed in turn by four ghosts, cycling through their personalities and voices in single takes.

Which 1994 romance paired him with Marisa Tomei and Billy Zane?

Norman Jewison's comedy sends Tomei chasing a Ouija-board destiny across Italy, with Downey as the man who gets in the way.

According to Forbes, he was the world's highest-paid actor annually across which stretch of years?

His Marvel deals were reported to include back-end profit shares, pushing his Endgame payday past $75 million.

At ages eleven and twelve, Downey attended which summer acting camp in upstate New York?

His childhood was peripatetic, with stops in Woodstock, London, New Mexico, California, Connecticut and Greenwich Village.

Which nightclub employed the teenage Downey as 'living art' after he moved back to New York?

He also cleared tables at a restaurant and worked in a shoe store while pursuing acting full-time at 17.

Downey's 1983 off-Broadway musical American Passion at the Joyce Theater was produced by which TV legend?

The show was short-lived, and most of his scenes in his first credited film that year, Baby It's You, were cut.

Which 1988 teen drama paired Downey with Kiefer Sutherland and Winona Ryder?

It earned mixed reviews overall, though his own performance drew praise from Variety and Deseret News.

Director Norman Jewison cast Downey in Only You (1994) because he reminded him of which actor?

Jewison called him 'charming with great comedic timing'; Downey played a dancer posing as Marisa Tomei's soulmate.

To prepare for Natural Born Killers, Downey shadowed which Australian shock journalist?

The experience helped him develop the accent for reporter Wayne Gale; the film grossed $110 million on a $34 million budget.

In Two Girls and a Guy (1997), Downey plays a man who convinces two women of what?

Soon after, he missed a court-ordered drug test and spent six months in Los Angeles County Jail.

Downey's 2000 arrest came on Thanksgiving after police searched his room at a hotel and spa in which city?

He had been released from Corcoran prison that year after a judge ruled his cumulative jail time qualified him for early release on $5,000 bail.

Which Shane Black directorial debut gave Downey a lead role in 2005?

Producer Joel Silver secured him the part; The Oregonian called it one of his most enjoyable performances.

In 2005 Downey signed a memoir deal with HarperCollins; what happened to the book?

He cancelled the project in 2008 without explanation, the same year Iron Man made him a global star.

In Zodiac (2007), Downey played Paul Avery, a journalist at which newspaper?

Avery covered the Zodiac Killer case; Downey's character in Fur a year earlier was a composite of two influences on Diane Arbus.

Downey, Ben Stiller and Jack Black sang back-up for Gladys Knight on the 2008 finale of which show?

They stood in as the Pips on 'Midnight Train to Georgia' while promoting Tropic Thunder.

Which musician performed 'Driven to Tears' live with Downey at a 60th birthday concert in 2011?

The pair had previously duetted on the Police's 'Every Breath You Take' in a 2001 episode of Ally McBeal.

In Dolittle (2020), Downey's animal-talking veterinarian hails from which country?

The film was Team Downey's second production and a box-office disappointment, criticised for its length and execution.