Robert Downey Junior

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Robert Downey Jr. (2014)Robert Downey Jr.'s signature.svg

Robert John Downey Jr. (Born April 4, 1965 in New York City , New York ) is an American actor and singer . As the son of filmmaker Robert Downey sr. he came into contact with the film industry at an early age and had played minor film roles in its films as a child before he decided to become an actor. In the 1980s, he first belonged to a generation of actors known as Brat Pack before he first caught the attention of critics with the film Unter Null .

The two-time Oscar-nominated Downey (for Chaplin 1992 and Tropic Thunder 2008) is now known by critics as one of the best actors of his generation and is known for his wide range of roles, from character portrayal ( Chaplin ) to comedy ( Sherlock Holmes ) to to physically very demanding action films ( Iron Man ). He played the leading role in the successful film franchise Sherlock Holmes and the role of Iron Man in several films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe .

Between 1996 and 2001, Downey made headlines for his drug addiction . He has been tried repeatedly for possession of illegal drugs and has been sentenced to rehab on multiple occasions. He spent a total of 16 months in prison for violating his probation requirements. After he managed to stay permanently clean in 2003, he made a comeback with films like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang , Tropic Thunder and Gothika . For the third year in a row, Downey tops Forbes' list of Highest Paid Actors in Hollywood. Between June 2014 and June 2015, he earned 80 million US dollars .

Life

Childhood and youth

Robert Downey was the second child of the Underground - director Robert Downey senior (* 1936) and born actress Elsie Downey (1934-2014 born Ford). He grew up with his older sister Allyson in New York's bohemian Greenwich Village . The family name was actually Elias , but Robert Downey, Sr., took his stepfather's last name when he was 15 when he joined the army.

Downey grew up in an unconventional home in the late 1960s and 1970s, in the midst of the alternative New York film scene. As a child he took on small roles in his father's films. He made his film debut at the age of five in the absurd comedy Pound , in which all actors played dogs; two years later he starred in his father's surrealist film Greaser's Palace .

In the permissive environment of his childhood, he came into contact with illegal drugs at an early age . His family "always had a lot of hashish and cocaine " and his father first allowed him to try marijuana when he was six years old. According to Downey, drugs developed into an emotional bond between him and his father. “When my dad and me used drugs together, it was like expressing his love for me in the only way he knew.” After all, Downey got drunk every night and “made thousands of calls looking for drugs . "

After his parents divorced in 1978, he and his father moved to Los Angeles , where he attended Santa Monica High School and met some of his future fellow actors, including the likes of. a. Sean Penn . In 1982 he dropped out of school and moved back to New York to live with his mother to begin an acting career.

Career

Robert Downey Jr. (1990)

At the age of 20, Downey showed his comedic talent on the hit US television show Saturday Night Live . 1985 was Robert Downey Jr. in the teen comedy LISA - Weird Science by John Hughes first seen in a supporting role as Ian. His next role was in 1987 in Jack the Ripper and Sub Zero . His big breakthrough came with Richard Attenborough's film Chaplin , a biography about Charlie Chaplin , for whose portrayal Downey was honored with an Oscar nomination. Other films followed such as Nur für Dich (1994), Natural Born Killers (1994), Restoration - Time of Sensuality (1995), On the Hunt (1998) and The WonderBoys (2000).

In 2000 he played a leading role in the successful television series Ally McBeal , for which he won the Golden Globe . In the course of his portrayal in the television series, he sang pieces such as Joni Mitchell's River and Chances Are with Vonda Shepard . While filming was still in progress, Downey was sentenced to prison again for repeatedly using illegal drugs, which is why he was released from the serial producers in 2001.

After several withdrawal therapies and roles in smaller films, Downey was back on the big screen in 2003 alongside Halle Berry in Gothika . In 2004 he released his first music album The Futurist .

Robert Downey Jr. in Mexico City at the national premiere of Iron Man , 2008

In 2007, Downey played a journalist in Zodiac , in 2008 he starred in the comic book version Iron Man and in 2010 in the sequel Iron Man 2 . In 2009, he received another Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for his satirical and comedic portrait of a Hollywood star in Ben Stiller's comedy Tropic Thunder , who has his skin colored black for the role of an African American soldier. Downey played the title role in Guy Ritchie's film Sherlock Holmes and won the 2010 Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical .

In 2012, he reappeared as Iron Man in the comic book adaptation Marvel's The Avengers . For the first Iron Man, Downey received a fee of US $ 500,000, for part 2 already US $ 10 million and for his part in The Avengers he received a total of US $ 50 million with a share of the turnover. With that he has increased his fee a hundredfold within four years.

Downey has no permanent German voice actor, but he is usually spoken by Charles Rettinghaus (e.g. in Sherlock Holmes ) or Tobias Meister (e.g. in Iron Man ).

Private life

In the 1980s, Downey was dating actress Sarah Jessica Parker for seven years . The marriage with colleague Deborah Falconer failed in 2004 after twelve years. The two have a son who was born in 1993.

In the 1990s, Downey was a drug addict and was repeatedly criminal offenders. In August 1999, he was arrested after repeatedly breaking parole . He had deceived psychologists during his drug therapy.

On August 27, 2005, Downey married the film producer Susan Levin . Their first child, a son, was born on February 7, 2012. Their daughter was born on November 4, 2014.

engagement

In January 2020, Downey stated in an interview with Variety that he would now be vegan , among other things to reduce his personal ecological footprint. In 2019 he founded the Footprint Coalition , which is due to start work in April 2020 and which has set itself the goal of protecting the climate and the environment with the help of advanced technologies such as robotics and nanotechnology .

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
The futurist
  UK 56 05/07/2005 (1 week)
  US 121 12/11/2004 (2 weeks)
Singles
Smile
  UK 68 01/30/1993 (1 week)

Albums

  • 2004: The Futurist

Singles

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Oscar

  • Nominations
1993: Best Actor (Chaplin)
2009: Best Supporting Actor (Tropic Thunder)

BAFTA Award

  • Award
1993: Best Actor (Chaplin)
  • nomination
2009: Best Supporting Actor (Tropic Thunder)

Golden Globe Award

  • Awards
1994: Special award for the best ensemble (Short Cuts)
2001: Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries, or TV Movie (Ally McBeal)
2010: Best Actor - Comedy or Musical (Sherlock Holmes)
  • Nominations
1993: Best Actor - Drama (Chaplin)
2009: Best Supporting Actor (Tropic Thunder)

Irish Film and Television Awards

2009: Best International Actor (Iron Man)
2010: Best International Actor (Sherlock Holmes)

Saturn Award

  • Awards
1994: Best Actor (4 Heavenly Friends)
2009: Best Actor (Iron Man)
2014: Best Actor (Iron Man 3)
  • Nominations
2006: Best Actor (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang)
2010: Best Actor (Sherlock Holmes)

Screen Actors Guild Award

  • Award
2001: Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series (Ally McBeal)
  • Nominations
2001: Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series (Ally McBeal)
2006: Outstanding Ensemble (Good Night, and Good Luck)
2009: Outstanding Supporting Actor (Tropic Thunder)

Teen Choice Award

  • Award
2019: Best Actor in an Action Film (Avengers: Endgame)

Further awards

1993: London Critics Circle Film Award for Best Actor (Chaplin)
1993: Coppa Volpi at the Venice International Film Festival for Best Ensemble (Short Cuts)
2001: LA Outfest Screen Idol Award (The Wonderboys)
2003: Chicago International Film Festival Career Achievement Award
2003: Actor Award at the Sitges Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya (The Singing Detective)
2004: Hasty Pudding Man of the Year
2006: Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints)
2008: ShoWest Convention Award as Male Star of the Year
2009: Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor (Iron Man; Tropic Thunder)
2015: MTV Generation Award

Web links

Commons : Robert Downey junior  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Top Ten Downey Jr. films
  2. ↑ a b Been Up, Been Down. Now? Great. New York Times 2008, Retrieved January 18, 2012
  3. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/08/04/the-worlds-highest-paid-actors-2015-robert-downey-jr-leads-with-80-million-haul/
  4. ↑ a b c Actor's toughest role , CNN TV 2004, accessed January 18, 2012
  5. ↑ Robert Downey sr. in the Internet Movie Database
  6. ↑ 5 Things you didn't know: Robert Downey jr.
  7. ↑ Tom Gliatto, (Aug. 19, 1996): Hitting Bottom in People , accessed Jan. 18, 2012
  8. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000375/bio#quotes
  9. ↑ Jail for Robert Downey Jr. . Website mirror online. Retrieved November 15, 2010.
  10. ^ Lucy Danziger: Robert Downey Jr. Goes Plant-Based to Combat His "Carbon Footprint Nightmare Colossus". Retrieved February 15, 2020 .
  11. ^ Janko Roettgers : Robert Downey Jr. Announces Footprint Coalition to Clean Up the World With Advanced Tech. In: Variety. June 5, 2019, accessed February 15, 2020 .
  12. ↑ a b Chart sources: UK US
personal data
SURNAME Downey, Robert Jr.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Downey, Robert Jr.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York, United States