70 free Robert Downey Jr. trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Robert Downey Jr. has lived several careers in one: the teenage Brat Pack-adjacent breakout of Weird Science and Less Than Zero, the Oscar-nominated Chaplin, the lost years of arrests and rehab, then the most lucrative comeback in Hollywood history as Tony Stark, capped by an Academy Award for Oppenheimer and a return to Marvel as Doctor Doom. This quiz walks that whole arc in 70 questions. Early rounds are easy for anyone who has seen the Marvel films; later ones dig into his 1980s and 90s filmography, his court cases, his one studio album, his Broadway debut and the business ventures he runs with his wife Susan. Difficulty runs from a warm-up 20 to expert-level 90. Every answer was checked against his Wikipedia biography, with the sentence that establishes it quoted alongside each question, so you can trust the facts before you argue about them at trivia night.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was Robert Downey Jr. born?
1965
He was born in Manhattan on April 4, 1965, into a filmmaking family, and was on screen before he started school.
Q 02At age five he made his acting debut in which film directed by his father?
Pound
His father, Robert Downey Sr., was an underground filmmaker, and his mother Elsie was an actress who appeared in his films.
Q 03What was his first credited film role, in 1983?
Baby It's You
He had dropped out of Santa Monica High School the year before and moved back to New York to act full-time.
Q 04His breakthrough came playing a bully in which 1985 John Hughes film?
Weird Science
The same year he was hired for a famously short-lived, ratings-starved season of a late-night sketch show.
Q 05Which sketch show hired him in 1985, then dismissed most of its new cast after one season?
Saturday Night Live
The 1985-86 season is often ranked among the show's worst; nearly the entire cast was let go the following summer.
Q 06His first leading role was in which 1987 film?
The Pick-up Artist
He starred opposite Molly Ringwald in that comedy, the same year a much darker role earned him serious critical notice.
Q 07Roger Ebert called his performance in which 1987 film 'so real, so subtle and so observant'?
Less Than Zero
He played a drug-addicted rich kid in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, and entered rehab for the first time shortly after filming ended.
Q 08His first Academy Award nomination came for portraying which real-life figure in 1992?
Charlie Chaplin
He lost the Oscar to Al Pacino but took home the BAFTA for Best Actor for the role.
Q 09In Natural Born Killers (1994) he played a sensationalist TV reporter with what name?
Wayne Gale
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.
Q 10Which 1989 comedy paired him with Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O'Neal?
Chances Are
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.
Q 11Robert Downey Jr.'s 1996 incident of falling asleep on a neighbor's child's bed became known as what?
Goldilocks
It came a month after he was arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded pistol while speeding down Sunset Boulevard.
Q 12In January 1998 he was briefly released from Los Angeles County Jail to film which movie?
U.S. Marshals
He was serving six months after missing a court-ordered drug test, and shot his scenes with Tommy Lee Jones during a short furlough.
Q 13A week after his unexpected release from prison in 2000, he joined the cast of which TV series?
Ally McBeal
Q 21In Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) he played a journalist at which network?
CBS
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.
Q 22His performance as a drug addict in which 2006 rotoscoped film was praised by critics?
A Scanner Darkly
Richard Linklater's Philip K. Dick adaptation was shot live and then animated over, with Keanu Reeves and Woody Harrelson also in the cast.
Q 23He appeared in which 2007 David Fincher mystery thriller?
Zodiac
He played San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter Paul Avery opposite Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist Robert Graysmith.
His run as lawyer Larry Paul revived the show's ratings and won him a Golden Globe, but ended after another arrest.
Q 14In April 2001 he was found wandering barefoot where, an arrest that got him fired from his TV series?
Culver City
Months earlier he had been arrested in a Palm Springs hotel on Thanksgiving; the two cases together sent him back to court-ordered rehab.
Q 15His first acting job after rehab, in August 2001, was a music video for which musician?
Elton John
He lip-syncs the entire song 'I Want Love' in one continuous take, walking through an empty mansion.
Q 16Which star personally paid his insurance bond so he could be cast in The Singing Detective (2003)?
Mel Gibson
The two had co-starred in Air America in 1990, and no studio would insure him at the time.
Q 17On a 2003 horror film, producer Joel Silver withheld what share of his salary against a relapse?
40 percent
The money was held until filming wrapped; the shoot turned out to be life-changing for a very different reason.
Q 18He met his wife Susan, a producer, on the set of which 2003 thriller?
Gothika
Halle Berry starred in the film; Susan Levin was one of its producers and reportedly turned him down twice before agreeing to a date.
Q 19Where did he marry Susan Levin in a Jewish ceremony in August 2005?
Amagansett, New York
The couple later had a son in 2012 and a daughter in 2014, and run a production company together.
Q 20In which year did he marry singer and actress Deborah Falconer, his first wife?
1992
Their son Indio was born the following year; the marriage ended in 2004 with Falconer receiving custody.
Q 24Which character did he voice in a 2005 episode of Family Guy?
Patrick Pewterschmidt
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.
Q 25Iron Man was released in US cinemas in which month and year?
May 2008
It was the first film released by Marvel Studios itself, and its success launched the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Q 26What was Iron Man's production budget?
$130 million
The film grossed more than $585 million, and by October 2008 he had signed on for two sequels.
Q 27How much muscle did he reportedly gain over five months to play Tony Stark?
20 pounds
Director Jon Favreau fought the studio to cast him, saying he 'understood what makes the character tick.'
Q 28Who directed Iron Man (2008)?
Jon Favreau
Favreau also plays Stark's driver and bodyguard Happy Hogan throughout the franchise.
Q 29He first reprised the role of Tony Stark with a brief appearance in which 2008 film?
The Incredible Hulk
Stark shows up in a bar in the final scene to tell General Ross that a team is being put together.
Q 30What was the name of the self-absorbed method actor he played in Tropic Thunder?
Kirk Lazarus
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.