May 19, 2009, at 5:59 am
Robert John Downey Jr. born April 4th 1965 in New York City New York; has taken quite the tumultuous road to become the actor he is today. Although I am not suggesting that other actors have had an easy road to fame, Downey Jr. has certainly not made life easy on himself. Early in life, Robert moved from New York to California as his parents divorced and he decided to live with his father. The Father/Son relationship didn’t seem to take and Downey Jr. moved back to New York to pursue an acting career. Finding work pretty young in his career, Robert joined the cast of Saturday Night Live at the age of 20. The same year, his first major motion picture was released, Tuff Turf. One could suggest acting along side James Spader does not help a drug addiction but there are no facts to support such a conclusion. Unfortunately, Robert’s tenure on SNL came to a quick end, as he was fired in ’86 due to poor ratings. Focusing solely on his movie career, Downey Jr. began a path that few in the movie industry would forget.
Following his early success in movies such as Weird Science and Back to School, RDJ finished the 80’s on a weak note, and began the 90’s the same way, until he landed the role of Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin. The performance scored Downey Jr. an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, but Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman) made short work of his chances. Robert’s following films hardly qualify as quality acting and in 1996 it was what many thought was the beginning of the end for Downey’s career (and possibly life).
In 1996 RDJ was pulled over and arrested for possession of Cocaine, Heroin, and an unloaded .357 Magnum. (And I forgot to mention speeding.) His initial prison term was a 3 year suspended sentence but after failing to show up for two separate court mandated drug tests, Downey Jr. landed himself if the pokey for what was to be three years. For some strange reason, people can apparently leave prison early if they are nice while behind bars, and Robert was released on $5,000 bond in 2000. Just one week after his release, RDJ landed a role on Ally McBeal. Having to take a drug test every day, Downey Jr. cracked under the pressure and was arrested once again on Thanksgiving Day, 2000 for possession of cocaine. While on parole for that violation, he was arrested a third time for suspicion of Drug use, and although tests showed he did have cocaine in his system, he was released shortly thereafter. Taking advantage of yet another loophole, Downey Jr. did not serve jail time (Inspiring stuff for all of you addicts out there) and landed only three years probation. Being given so many chances, Robert finally took advantage of one and began rolling off Blockbuster hits in Iron Man and Tropic Thunder. With another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor under his belt (Lost of Heath Ledger) and two Monster Iron Man Sequels sure to follow, we felt it necessary to award Robert Downey Jr. as the 92nd Greatest Drug Free Actor of All-Time.
Robert Downey Jr. first made an impression on me when I watched the comedy classic Back to School. Although his role was secondary, the kid had talent. Being able to adjust from Comedy, to Action, then to Drama and back again to Action is not easy for any actor. (Maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger if you consider Commando a drama) I also must admit I have yet to see Iron Man, so I cannot attest to the greatness of that movie, however I have seen enough of RDJ to know that he will be acting for quite some time. (Unless James Spader is in the same state as Downey Jr.) For our everyday readers, (Thanks Mom and Dad) you may have noticed that I put more fluff into my factual paragraphs than normal. I did this because I wanted to show how no matter how stupid you are, if you’ve got talent, you will be forgiven time and time again. The world is all about second chances, and RDJ seems to have purchased quite a few that others didn’t need.
* For a quick laugh, you should check out this fun fact about Robert Downey Jr. from IMDB. “Son of Robert Downey Sr.”… Really IMDB? Really?
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