LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 24: Robert Downey Jr. accepts the Outstanding Performance by a ... [+]
Robert Downey Jr. appears to be heading toward a Best Supporting Actor win for Oppenheimer at the 2024 Oscars, and judging his acceptance speech at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in February, the actor is clearly intent on not forgetting where he came from more than 50 years ago.
Accepting the Best Supporting Male Actor SAG Award for his compelling turn as U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Chair Lewis Strauss in writer-director Christopher Nolan’s historical epic, Downey cited 18 of the countless number of screen actors he’s worked with throughout his illustrious career.
The humbled star, however, saved the name of his most important collaborator, Susan Downey, for last: “Now why have I added my wife’s name to this of otherwise super-talented artists that I’ve learned so much from up close over these last 40 years?” Downey asked the SAG crowd, as his longtime spouse and production partner flashed a smile his way. “It’s because for 22 years she has flawlessly portrayed a sane and rational individual who is happily married to an actor.”
Downey’s not wrong. Being married to an actor — especially one whose life and career have had as many ups and downs as Downey’s — can’t be easy. But while together, the couple experienced one of Downey’s greatest personal accomplishments with his triumph over drug addiction more than 20 years ago. Up next, they’ll both find out if Downey’s resilience in Hollywood has paid off in the form of an Oscar.
NEW YORK - MAY 08: Director Robert Downey Sr. and actor Robert Downey Jr. attend Time's 100 Most ... [+]
Robert Downey Jr. made his screen debut in 1970 in a film directed by his father
Born April 4, 1965, in Manhattan, New York, Robert Downey Jr. seemed destined for a screen career considering his father and mother — Robert Downey Sr. and Elsie Downey — were both show business veterans. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 under the auspices of his director father in the fantasy film Pound, where the young actor — credited as “Bob Downey” — played a character simply billed as “Puppy.”
Downey’s career began in earnest in the 1984 dramatic thriller First Born, which was followed by roles in such films as the comedy-drama Tuff Turf and sci-fi comedy Weird Science in 1985, and the Rodney Dangerfield campus comedy Back to School in 1986. The next year, Downey alternated between comedy and drama with roles in The Pick-Up Artist and Less Than Zero, respectively, and ended the decade with a turn in romantic fantasy Chances Are in 1989.
As much as Downey became a staple as a film actor in the 1980s, his talents weren’t confined to the big screen. From 1985 to 1986, Downey appeared on one season of NBC’s Saturday Night Live alongside fellow film actors Anthony Michael Hall and Joan Cusack.
Robert Downey Jr playing around with his hat in a scene from the film 'Chaplin', 1992. (Photo by ... [+]
Downey’s first Oscar nomination came for 1992’s ‘Chaplin’
After Robert Downey Jr. kicked off the 1990s with the action-comedy Air America opposite Mel Gibson, his first Oscar nomination for 1992’s Chaplin propelled Downey’s career to new heights.
Chaplin serves to this day as a testament to Downey’s tremendous range, as the comedy-drama delves deep into Charlie Chaplin’s rise from a life of poverty in his youth to the pinnacle of stardom in Hollywood as a slapstick comedian. The role seemed to be tailor-made for Downey, who in addition to a Best Oscar nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences earned a Best Actor trophy from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Like he did throughout the 1980s, Downey hopped back and forth between comedies and dramas on the big screen. As such, the 1994 romantic fantasy tale Heart and Souls spotlighted Downey’s Chaplin-like gifts for physical comedy, while he ventured down the action-crime route in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers the same year. Downey also starred in the action-crime drama U.S. Marshals in 1998 and ended the decade with a role in the Steve Martin-Eddie Murphy comedy Bowfinger in 1999.
LOS ANGELES - OCTOBER 18: Actors Robert Downey Jr. (L) and Val Kilmer pose at the afterparty for ... [+]
Downey returned to television in 2000 before hopping back to the big screen
Robert Downey Jr. returned to television in 2000 as a cast regular for the fourth season of the hit Fox Television series Ally McBeal opposite star Calista Flockhart. Downey’s return to TV 15 years after SNL was brief, though, as he returned the big screen in 2003 with the crime comedy musical The Singing Detective and the mystery thriller Gothika.
Roles in the crime comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and director George Clooney’s Best Picture Oscar-nominated drama Good Night, and Good Luck followed in 2005, before Downey examined the crime mystery realm in 2007’s Zodiac. What the actor didn’t realize at the time, however, was that his life and career were about to change in a new film series dubbed the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” as the star of the blockbuster superhero movie Iron Man.
US actor Robert Downey Jr. poses by a life-size Iron Man model during a press conference on his ... [+]
Iron Man provided a major boost to Downey’s career
Directed by Jon Favreau, 2008’s Iron Man stars Robert Downey Jr. as billionaire industrialist Tony Stark and his superhero alter-ego who wears a technologically advanced suit of metal.
Even though Iron Man provided a major boost to Downey’s career, it wasn’t the only big success the actor experienced in 2008. Downey’s turn as an extreme method actor in writer-director Ben Stiller’s hit action-comedy Tropic Thunder courted just as much acclaim as it did controversy since he wears Blackface for most of the film — but that didn’t seem to dissuade AMPAS members from awarding Downey a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination.
Downey’s career continued to soar over the next decade with two more Iron Man films and principal turns as the character in the MCU’s Avengers films, which concluded in 2019. Downey didn’t kick back and relax between the chapters of the sprawling superhero story, though, appearing in such films as 2009’s Sherlock Holmes and its 2011 sequel, as well as the 2014 crime mystery The Judge.
Robert Downey Jr. in a scene from "Oppenheimer."
Downey earned his third Oscar nomination for his work in ‘Oppenheimer’
Thanks to his acclaimed turn in Oppenheimer, Downey earned his third Oscar nomination with a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Along with his wins at the SAG Awards and BAFTAs, the actor appears poised to take home the coveted statuette more than 50 years after his first film role at the 2024 Oscars.
What Downey does next is up in the air, but perhaps that’s why he’s enjoyed such a long career. Oppenheimer proves that just when audiences think they’ve seen it all from Downey, he delivers another blindsiding performance highlighting his unique abilities as one of the most successful actors of his generation.
