Robert Downey Jr. is an American actor who has starred in numerous films, and television series. Downey made his acting debut in 1970's Pound , directed by his father Robert Downey Sr., at the age of five. In the 1980s, Downey was considered a member of the Brat Pack [1] after appearing in the films Weird Science with Anthony Michael Hall (1985), Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield (1986), Less than Zero with Andrew McCarthy (1987), and Johnny Be Good again with Hall (1988). Downey also starred in the films True Believer (1989) and Chances Are (1989), and was a regular cast member on the late-night variety show Saturday Night Live in 1985.
In the 1990s, Downey was featured in the films Air America with Mel Gibson (1990), Soapdish with Sally Field (1991), Chaplin as Charlie Chaplin (1992), Heart and Souls with Alfre Woodard and Kyra Sedgwick (1993), Short Cuts with Julianne Moore (1993), Only You with Marisa Tomei (1994), Richard III with Ian McKellen (1995), and U.S. Marshals with Tommy Lee Jones (1998). His role in Chaplin earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and a BAFTA Award win for Best Actor in a Leading Role. [2] [3]
Downey had a regular role in the television series Ally McBeal in 2000, which won him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. [4] He was then cast in the 2003 films The Singing Detective alongside Robin Wright and Gothika with Halle Berry. In 2005, he starred in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with Val Kilmer; in Good Night, and Good Luck with David Strathairn and George Clooney; and voiced the character of Patrick Pewterschmidt in the animated series Family Guy . The following year, he appeared in the animated science fiction film A Scanner Darkly and as Paul Avery in the 2007 film Zodiac .
Downey was cast as the role of Tony Stark / Iron Man in the 2008 Marvel Studios film Iron Man . He reprised the role in Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 , Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). He also starred in the films Tropic Thunder (2008) and The Soloist (2009), and played the title character in Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). In 2020, he starred as the title character in Dolittle . For his role in Tropic Thunder, he was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. He also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his role in Sherlock Holmes. [4] For his role as Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer (2023), Downey received a Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. [5]
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | Pound | Puppy | [6] | |
1972 | Greaser's Palace | Small Boy in Covered Wagon | Uncredited | [7] |
1975 | Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight | Himself | Uncredited | [8] |
1980 | Up the Academy | Boy on Soccer Team | Uncredited | [9] |
1983 | Baby It's You | Stewart | [6] | |
1984 | Firstborn | Lee | [10] | |
1985 | Tuff Turf | Jimmy Parker | [11] | |
1985 | Girls Just Want to Have Fun | Punk Party Crasher | Uncredited | [12] |
1985 | Weird Science | Ian | [13] | |
1985 | Deadwait | None | Short film | [14] |
1986 | Back to School | Derek Lutz | [13] | |
1987 | The Pick-up Artist | Jack Jericho | [13] | |
1987 | Less than Zero | Julian Wells | [10] | |
1988 | Johnny Be Good | Leo Wiggins | [13] | |
1988 | Rented Lips | Wolf Dangler | [13] | |
1988 | 1969 | Ralph Karr | [13] | |
1988 | That's Adequate | Albert Einstein | [15] | |
1989 | True Believer | Roger Baron | [13] | |
1989 | Chances Are | Alex Finch / Louie Jefferies | [16] | |
1990 | Air America | Billy Covington | [17] | |
1991 | Too Much Sun | Reed Richmond | [18] | |
1991 | Soapdish | David Seton Barnes | [19] | |
1992 | Chaplin | Charlie Chaplin | [20] | |
1993 | Heart and Souls | Thomas Reilly | [21] | |
1993 | The Last Party | Himself | Documentary; also writer | [22] |
1993 | Short Cuts | Bill Bush | [23] | |
1994 | Hail Caesar | Jerry | [24] | |
1994 | Natural Born Killers | Wayne Gale | [25] | |
1994 | Only You | Peter Wright | [26] | |
1995 | Richard III | Earl Rivers | [27] | |
1995 | Home for the Holidays | Tommy Larson | [28] | |
1995 | Restoration | Robert Merivel | [29] | |
1996 | Danger Zone | Jim Scott | [30] | |
1997 | One Night Stand | Charlie | [31] | |
1997 | Two Girls and a Guy | Blake Allen | [32] | |
1997 | Hugo Pool | Franz Mazur | [33] | |
1998 | The Gingerbread Man | Clyde Pell | [34] | |
1998 | U.S. Marshals | Special Agent John Royce | [17] | |
1999 | In Dreams | Vivian Thompson | [35] | |
1999 | Friends & Lovers | Hans | [36] | |
1999 | Bowfinger | Jerry Renfro | [37] | |
1999 | Black and White | Terry Donager | [38] | |
2000 | Wonder Boys | Terry Crabtree | [39] | |
2002 | Lethargy | Animal therapist | Short film | [40] |
2003 | Whatever We Do | Bobby | Short film | [41] |
2003 | The Singing Detective | Dan Dark | [10] | |
2003 | Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin | Himself | Documentary | [42] |
2003 | Gothika | Pete Graham | [43] | |
2004 | Eros | Nick Penrose | Segment: "Equilibrium" | [44] |
2005 | Game 6 | Steven Schwimmer | [45] | |
2005 | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang | Harry Lockhart | [17] | |
2005 | The Outsider | Himself | Documentary | [46] |
2005 | Good Night, and Good Luck | Joseph Wershba | [47] | |
2005 | Hubert Selby Jr.: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow | Narrator | Documentary | [48] |
2006 | A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints | Dito Montiel | Also co-producer | [49] |
2006 | The Shaggy Dog | Dr. Kozak | [50] | |
2006 | A Scanner Darkly | James Barris | [51] | |
2006 | Fur | Lionel Sweeney | [52] | |
2007 | Zodiac | Paul Avery | [53] | |
2007 | Lucky You | Telephone Jack | Cameo | [34] |
2007 | Charlie Bartlett | Principal Nathan Gardner | [54] | |
2008 | Iron Man | Tony Stark / Iron Man | [55] | |
2008 | The Incredible Hulk | Tony Stark / Iron Man | Mid-credits uncredited cameo | [56] |
2008 | Tropic Thunder | Kirk Lazarus | [17] | |
2009 | The Soloist | Steve Lopez | [57] | |
2009 | Sherlock Holmes | Sherlock Holmes | [17] | |
2010 | Iron Man 2 | Tony Stark / Iron Man | [58] | |
2010 | Love & Distrust | Rob | Segment: "Auto Motives" | [59] |
2010 | Due Date | Peter Highman | [60] | |
2011 | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows | Sherlock Holmes | [61] | |
2012 | The Avengers | Tony Stark / Iron Man | [62] | |
2013 | Iron Man 3 | [63] | ||
2014 | The Judge | Hank Palmer | Also executive producer | [17] |
2014 | Chef | Marvin | [64] | |
2015 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | Tony Stark / Iron Man | [63] | |
2016 | Captain America: Civil War | [65] | ||
2017 | Spider-Man: Homecoming | [66] | ||
2018 | Avengers: Infinity War | [63] | ||
2019 | Avengers: Endgame | [67] | ||
2020 | Dolittle | Dr. John Dolittle | Also executive producer | [68] |
2022 | "Sr." | Himself | Documentary; also producer | [69] |
2023 | Oppenheimer | Lewis Strauss | [70] | |
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1985–1986 | Saturday Night Live | Various characters | 16 episodes | [13] |
1985 | Mussolini: The Untold Story | Bruno Mussolini | 3 episodes | [71] |
1995 | Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree | Mr. Willowby | Television special | [72] |
1996 | Saturday Night Live | Himself (host) | Episode: "Robert Downey, Jr./Fiona Apple" | [73] |
2000–2002 | Ally McBeal | Larry Paul | 21 episodes | [74] |
2005 | Family Guy | Patrick Pewterschmidt (voice) | Episode: "The Fat Guy Strangler" | [75] |
2019 | The Age of A.I. | Himself (host) | 8 episodes; also co-executive producer | [76] |
2020 | The Ellen DeGeneres Show | Himself (guest host) | 1 episode | [77] |
2020–2023 | Perry Mason | None | Executive producer | [78] |
2021–present | Sweet Tooth | None | Executive producer | [79] |
2024 | The Sympathizer | Claude, Niko, Professor Hammer, Ned Godwin | 7 episodes; also executive producer | [80] |
† | Denotes series that have not yet been released |
Year | Title | Voice role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Iron Man | Tony Stark | Iron Man was voiced by Stephen Stanton | [81] |
Year | Title | Artist | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2001 | "I Want Love" | Elton John | [82] |
Robert John Downey Jr. is an American actor. His films as a leading actor have grossed over $14 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. Downey's career has been characterized by some early success, a period of drug-related problems and run-ins with the law, and a surge in popular and commercial success in the 2000s. In 2008, Downey was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. From 2013 to 2015, he was listed by Forbes as Hollywood's highest-paid actor.
Chaplin is a 1992 biographical comedy-drama film about the life of English comic actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin. It was produced and directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Dan Aykroyd, Penelope Ann Miller and Kevin Kline. It also features Charlie Chaplin's own daughter, Geraldine Chaplin, in the role of his mother, Hannah Chaplin.
Marisa Tomei is an American actress. She gained prominence for her comedic performance in My Cousin Vinny (1992), which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received further nominations in the category for In the Bedroom (2001) and The Wrestler (2008).
A biographical film or biopic is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudrama films and historical drama films in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a single person's life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives.
Sam Rockwell is an American actor. He is known for playing distressed police officer Jason Dixon in Martin McDonagh’s crime drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was nominated for the same category the following year for portraying George W. Bush in Adam McKay's political satire Vice (2018). In 2019, he portrayed Bob Fosse in the FX biographical miniseries Fosse/Verdon, earning a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award, and in 2022, he received a Tony Award nomination for his performance in the Broadway revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo.
Christopher Robert Evans is an American actor. He began his career with roles in television series such as Opposite Sex in 2000. Following appearances in several teen films, including 2001's Not Another Teen Movie, he gained attention for his portrayal of Marvel Comics character the Human Torch in Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). Evans made further appearances in film adaptations of comic books and graphic novels: TMNT (2007), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and Snowpiercer (2013).
Iron Man is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Jon Favreau from a screenplay by the writing teams of Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man alongside Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, and Shaun Toub. In the film, following his escape from captivity by a terrorist group, world-famous industrialist and master engineer Tony Stark builds a mechanized suit of armor and becomes the superhero Iron Man.
Tropic Thunder is a 2008 satirical action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller, who wrote the screenplay with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen. The film stars Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson as a group of prima donna actors making a Vietnam War film. When their frustrated director drops them in the middle of a jungle and dies in an accident, they are forced to rely on their acting skills to survive the real action and danger. Tropic Thunder parodies many prestigious war films, the Hollywood studio system, and method acting. The ensemble cast includes Nick Nolte, Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Hader, and Tom Cruise.
Iron Man 2 is a 2010 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the sequel to Iron Man (2008) and the third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Jon Favreau and written by Justin Theroux, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, and Samuel L. Jackson. Six months after Iron Man, Tony Stark resists calls from the United States government to hand over the Iron Man technology, which is causing his declining health. Meanwhile, Russian scientist Ivan Vanko (Rourke) uses his own version of the technology to pursue a vendetta against the Stark family.
Iron Man 3 is a 2013 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010), and the seventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Shane Black from a screenplay he co-wrote with Drew Pearce, and stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stéphanie Szostak, James Badge Dale, William Sadler, Miguel Ferrer, Jon Favreau, and Ben Kingsley. In the film, Tony Stark grapples with the consequences of the events of The Avengers (2012) during a national terrorism campaign on the United States led by the mysterious Mandarin.
Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor who began his career performing as a child on television. He appeared on the shows The New Lassie (1989) and Santa Barbara (1990) and also had long running roles in the comedy-drama Parenthood (1990) and the sitcom Growing Pains (1991). DiCaprio played Tobias "Toby" Wolff opposite Robert De Niro in the biographical coming-of-age drama This Boy's Life in 1993. In the same year, he had a supporting role as a developmentally disabled boy Arnie Grape in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, which earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. In 1995, DiCaprio played the leading roles of an American author Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries and the French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. The following year he played Romeo Montague in the Baz Luhrmann-directed film Romeo + Juliet (1996). DiCaprio starred with Kate Winslet in the James Cameron-directed film Titanic (1997). The film became the highest grossing at the worldwide box-office, and made him famous globally. For his performance as Jack Dawson, he received the MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance and his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress who has appeared in films, television series, video games and stage plays. Johansson made her debut in the 1994 comedy-drama North. Her first lead role was as the 11-year-old sister of a pregnant teenager in Manny & Lo (1996), for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. Johansson starred in Robert Redford's drama The Horse Whisperer (1998), and appeared with Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi in the black comedy Ghost World (2001). Two years later, Johansson played a woman in her 20s stuck in a listless marriage who befriends an aging American actor in Japan in the Sofia Coppola-directed Lost in Translation, and also played a servant in Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's household in Girl with a Pearl Earring with Colin Firth. She was nominated at the 61st Golden Globe Awards for both films, and received the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the former.
Julia Roberts is an American actress and producer who made her debut in the 1987 direct-to-video feature Firehouse. She had her breakthrough the following year by starring in the coming-of-age film Mystic Pizza (1988). For her supporting role in the comedy-drama Steel Magnolias (1989), she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Roberts' next role was opposite Richard Gere in the highly successful romantic comedy Pretty Woman (1990), for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. In 1991, she appeared in the psychological thriller Sleeping with the Enemy, and played Tinker Bell in the Steven Spielberg-directed fantasy adventure Hook. Two years later, Roberts starred in the legal thriller The Pelican Brief, an adaptation of the John Grisham novel of the same name. During the late 1990s, she played the lead in the romantic comedies My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Notting Hill (1999), and Runaway Bride (1999).
American actor, director, and producer Robert Duvall has had an extensive career in film and television since he first appeared in an episode of Armstrong Circle Theatre in 1959. His television work during the 1960s includes Route 66 (1961), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1962), The Twilight Zone (1963), The Outer Limits (1964), The F.B.I. (1965–1969), and The Mod Squad (1969). He was then cast as General Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1979 miniseries Ike. In 1989, he played Augustus "Gus" McCrae alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the epic Western adventure television miniseries Lonesome Dove. The role earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film. Three years later, he portrayed Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader Joseph Stalin in the television film Stalin (1992), which earned him another Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Film.
Anthony Edward Stark is a fictional character primarily portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise—based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name—commonly known by his alias, Iron Man. Stark is initially depicted as an industrialist, genius inventor, and former playboy who is CEO of Stark Industries. Initially the chief weapons manufacturer for the U.S. military, he has a change of heart and redirects his technical knowledge into the creation of mechanized suits of armor which he uses to defend Earth.
Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a group of American superhero films produced by Marvel Studios based on characters that appear in publications by Marvel Comics. The MCU is the shared universe in which all of the films are set. The phase began in May 2008 with the release of Iron Man and concluded in May 2012 with the release of The Avengers. Kevin Feige produced every film in the phase, with Avi Arad also producing Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, and Gale Anne Hurd also producing The Incredible Hulk.