Robert Elias Jr.? His family name was Elias until his father changed it to Downey in the 1950s.
The future action star studied ballet at the age of 10.
Bright lights, big city! When Robert was 16, he quit school and moved back to New York to start his acting career. His first gigs were in off-Broadway plays.
Two of Downey's films, 'The Avengers' and 'Iron Man 3', have earned over 1 billion dollars each. He tops the Forbes list of Hollywood's highest-paid actors with an estimated 75 million dollars in earnings between June 2012 and June 2013.
One of his first loves was Sarah Jessica Parker, who he met while being an extra on the set of Girls Just Want to Have Fun . The lovebirds were together for seven years beginning in 1984 before they split over his alcohol and drug use. "She tried to help me," he has said. "She was so miffed when I didn't get my act together."
In August 1996, During traffic stop for speeding, he was arrested for drunk driving, possession of heroin, and possession of an unloaded pistol in his pickup truck. This was his first reported brush with the law at age 31. He was given a suspended prison sentence of three years, and granted probation with requirements of random drug testing and drug counseling.
Live from New York, it’s Robert Downey Jr.! The actor was a cast member on the 1985 season of Saturday Night Live.
The actor wrote and starred in his first documentary The Last Party in 1993.
Robert did drugs the first time with his father when he was a child and fell into a cycle of addiction. He spent four months in jail in 1997 and another year in 1999 for drug possession.
In order to get over his drug addiction, he began studying Wing Chun in 2003 under Sifu Eric Oram, who served as a fight and martial arts consultant on Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes (2009).
We swooned for him as Calista Flockhart’s love interest Larry Paul on Ally McBeal. Robert won a Golden Globe for the role but was written off the show in 2001 because of his personal issues.
It isn’t easy becoming a member of Hollywood’s 20 Million Club (stars who earn more than $20 million per film), but Robert did just thanks to the success of the Iron Man franchise.
Tinseltown loves a comeback story and Robert has thanked Mel Gibson for reviving his career. Mel cast Robert in a small role in 2003’s The Singing Detective.
He earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor for starring as Charlie Chaplin in 'Chaplin' (1992), a role for which he learnt how to play the violin and tennis left-handed. However, he lost the award to Al Pacino in 'Scent of a Woman'.
Vive l’amour. Robert met his now-wife Susan in 2003 on the Montreal set of the movie Gothika. He credits her for helping him maintain his sobriety.
Some people collect stamps; Robert collects cars. He has a Corvette, Bentley, Volvo, a Mustang, some Audis, a Porsche, a Mercedes and more!
He has a sweet (and a salty) tooth. “I would have Domino’s pizza with pasta carbonara inside every slice. And at night I would have Neapolitan ice cream until I felt absolutely toxic,” he admits to Vanity Fair.
Team Downey, he and his wife’s production company, produced their first film in 2014. The Judge , starring Robert Duvall, who received a best supporting actor nomination.
