Spanish collector card by Accion.
French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 814. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Robert Downey in Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).
French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 818. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Robert Downey in Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).
Dutch poster postcard by Boomerang. Image: Seven Productions / Warner Bros. Poster of Robert Downey Jr. in Due Date (Todd Phillips, 2010). Caption: "If there's hell. I'm already in it"Leave your comfort zone.
Dutch Poster postcard by Boomerang, no. P25-11. Photo: Village Roadshow Pictures / Warner Bros. Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows (Guy Ritchie, 2011). Caption: Do you also solve every puzzle? Test it here.
Burying his Brat Pack image in the backyard of his house
Robert John Downey Jr. was born in New York in 1965. He was the second child of director Robert Downey Sr. and actress Elsie Downey. He grew up with his older sister Allyson in Greenwich Village, New York’s artists’ quarter. The family name was actually Elias, but Robert Downey Sr. took his stepfather’s surname at 15 when he joined the army. Downey Jr. grew up in the late 1960s and 1970s in an unconventional family home, amidst New York’s alternative film scene.
At the age of five, he played his first small role as Puppy in his father’s comedy Pound (1970), in which all the actors played dogs. Two years later, he appeared in his father’s surrealist religious parody Greaser’s Palace (Robert Downey Sr., 1972). His father allowed him to try marijuana for the first time when he was eight years old. According to Downey, drugs became an emotional bond between him and his father. Downey Jr. would go on to struggle with abuse for decades. After his parents divorced in 1978, he moved with his father to Los Angeles, where he attended Santa Monica High School and met some of his future acting colleagues, including Sean Penn.
In 1982, he dropped out of school. He moved back to New York to live with his mother and to embark on an acting career. At the age of 20, Downey showcased his comedy talent on the successful television show Saturday Night Live (1985-1986). Downey made his film debut in a supporting role as Ian in the teen comedy Weird Science (John Hughes, 1985), followed by another teen film, Tuff Turf (Fritz Kiersch, 1985) with James Spader. Downey was seen as a member of the ‘Brat Pack’. In 1987, he made his breakthrough playing the cocaine-addicted Julian in Less Than Zero (Marek Kanievska, 1987), the film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel. In1991, in a symbolic attempt to bury his Brat Pack image and begin a new phase of his life and career after filming the biopic Chaplin, he literally buried the clothes he wore in Less Than Zero in his backyard.
For Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992), Downey won the BAFTA (British Academy Award) for Best Actor and was nominated for an Oscar. In Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), he appeared as an aspiring film makeup artist whose best friend commits murder. In Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), with Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis, Downey starred as a tabloid TV journalist who exploits the murderous couple's killing spree to boost his ratings. In 1995, Downey starred in Restoration (Michael Hoffman, 1995), with Hugh Grant, Meg Ryan and Ian McKellen. Also that year, he starred opposite McKellen in the brilliantly original William Shakespeare adaptation Richard III (Richard Loncraine, 1995).
Then, his career was undermined by his drug problems. Away from the film set, his behaviour initially mainly resulted in big headlines in the tabloids. An arrest in 1996 for possession of drugs and an unloaded firearm marked the start of a series of run-ins with the law. It culminated in a one-year prison sentence in 1999. Following his release, Downey immediately checked into a rehabilitation centre. He also tried to get back into acting. The first role he took on was that of Larry Paul, Ally McBeal’s love interest, in the television series Ally McBeal. In 2000, Downey co-starred with Michael Douglas and Tobey Maguire in Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson, 2000). In this dramatic comedy, Downey played the role of a bisexual literary agent. Viewers and critics alike embraced him again, and his role in Ally McBeal earned him a Golden Globe. Two months before the awards ceremony, the actor had once again found himself in trouble following another arrest for possession of drugs and firearms. Shortly before the end of the television season, he was arrested again after police officers found him in an alleyway under the influence of drugs. Ally McBeal producer David E. Kelley sacked Downey and rewrote the series’ final episode. An Emmy nomination was little consolation, as it did not look at that time as though Downey would ever be considered for such a role again. In July 2001, Downey was sentenced to a year in a rehabilitation clinic and a three-year suspended prison sentence. He spent a total of 16 months in prison.
French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 813. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).
French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 815. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).
French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 816. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).
French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 817. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992) with Dan Aykroyd as Mack Sennett and Robert Downey Jr. as Charlie Chaplin between Sennett's Bathing Beauties.
French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 819. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures. Publicity still for Chaplin (Richard Attenborough, 1992).
His breakthrough as a global star
In 2003, Robert Downey managed to stay clean for good. He began to rebuild his career. In 2011, Downey publicly thanked Mel Gibson for supporting him during that time. In 2003, Gibson personally paid his insurance bond as producer of The Singing Detective (Keith Gordon, 2003) after no insurance company was prepared to cover the risk associated with a film starring Downey in the lead role. Downey next appeared in films such as the thriller Gothika (Mathieu Kassovitz, 2003) alongside Halle Berry. In 2004, he released his first music album, 'The Futurist'.
Following his successful recovery from drug addiction, he regained a foothold in the film industry. Downey played a journalist in David Fincher's suspenseful Zodiac (2007), alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo, about the notorious serial killer who haunted San Francisco during the 1970s. In 2008, he made a double whammy. For his satirical portrayal of a Hollywood prima donna in the action comedy Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, 2008), he received his second Oscar nomination. His role in Iron Man (Jon Favreau, 2008) marked his breakthrough as a global star. The big-screen rendering of the Marvel comic book superhero was both critically acclaimed and a box-office smash.
In Guy Ritchie’s successful mystery Sherlock Holmes (2009), Downey played the eccentric detective opposite Jude Law as his companion Dr. Watson. He won the Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical award at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards. In the following years, he showed his range from character-driven performances to roles in comedies and physically demanding action films. Downey next starred with Zach Galifianakis in the comedy Due Date (Todd Phillips, 2010), in which he plays an expectant father on a road trip racing to be in time for the birth of his first child.
Robert Downey Jr. played Iron Man in several films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the first Iron Man film in 2008, Downey received a fee of US$500,000. For the second instalment, Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010), this had risen to US$10 million. For his role in The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012), he received a total of US$50 million, including a share of the box-office takings. It was followed by Iron Man 3 (Shane Black, 2013) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joss Whedon, 2015). Between June 2014 and June 2015, he earned around 80 million US dollars, and in 2015, Downey topped the Forbes list of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors for the third year. He returned to the Marvel Universe in Captain America: Civil War (Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, 2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts, 2017) in a small role, Avengers: Infinity War (Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, 2018), Avengers: Endgame (Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, 2019), The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), Avengers: Doomsday (Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, 2026), and Avengers: Secret Wars (Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, 2027).
At the 2024 Academy Awards, he won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as bureaucrat Lewis Strauss in the historical film Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023) starring Cillian Murphy. Robert Downey Jr. is now regarded by critics as one of the finest actors of his generation and is known for his wide range of roles. In the 1980s, Downey was in a relationship with actress Sarah Jessica Parker for seven years. Downey was married to singer Deborah Falconer from 1992 to 2004, with whom he had a son, Indio Falconer Downey (1993). On the set of the film Gothika (2003), he met producer Susan Levin, whom he married in 2005. They had a son, Exton Elias Downey, in 2012 and a daughter, Avri Roel Downey, in 2014.
Dutch poster freecard by Boomerang Study Cards, Amsterdam, no. P23-00. Poster: Paramount / Warner Bros. Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Katie Holmes and Robert Downey Jr. in Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson, 2000).
Dutch Poster postcard by Boomerang, no. P25-09. Photo: Village Roadshow Pictures / Warner Bros. Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows (Guy Ritchie, 2011). Caption: Are you a real Sherlock Holmes?
Dutch poster postcard by Boomerang. Image: Seven Productions / Warner Bros. Poster of Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis in Due Date (Todd Phillips, 2010). Caption: Leave Your Comfort Zone.
Dutch poster postcard by Boomerang. Image: Seven Productions / Warner Bros. Poster of Due Date (Todd Phillips, 2010), starring Robert Downey Jr.. Caption: "Dad.... You were like a father to me" Leave your comfort zone.
Dutch poster postcard by Boomerang. Image: Seven Productions / Warner Bros. Poster of Due Date (Todd Phillips, 2010), starring Robert Downey Jr. Caption: "Get that dog out of my face or I'll rip it in half." Leave your comfort zone.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.
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