American actor Robert Downey Jr. 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). It was revealed in July 2024 that he would return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this time as Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), Avengers: Doomsday (2026), and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027). 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. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1985–1986, 1996 | Saturday Night Live | Various characters / Himself (host) | 17 episodes | [13] [72] |
1985 | Mussolini: The Untold Story | Bruno Mussolini | 3 episodes | [73] |
1995 | Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree | Mr. Willowby | Television special | [74] |
2000–2002 | Ally McBeal | Larry Paul | 21 episodes | [75] |
2005 | Family Guy | Patrick Pewterschmidt (voice) | Episode: "The Fat Guy Strangler" | [76] |
2008 | American Idol | Himself | Episode: "American Idol Season 7 Finale" | [77] [78] |
2019 | Constance | None | Executive producer | [79] |
The Age of A.I. | Himself (host) | 8 episodes; also co-executive producer | [80] | |
2020 | The Ellen DeGeneres Show | Himself (guest host) | Episode: "Season 17, Episode 82" | [81] |
2020–2023 | Perry Mason | None | Executive producer | [82] |
2021–2024 | Sweet Tooth | None | Executive producer | [83] |
2023 | Downey's Dream Cars | Himself (host) | 6 episodes; also executive producer | [84] |
2024 | The Sympathizer | Claude, Niko Damianos, Professor Robert Hammer, Ned Godwin, The Priest | 7 episodes; also executive producer | [85] |
† | Denotes series that have not yet been released |
Year | Title | Role | Playwright | Venue | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1983 | American Passion | Jackson | Fred Burch | Joyce Theatre, Off-Broadway | [86] |
2024 | McNeal | Jacob McNeal | Ayad Akhtar | Vivian Beaumont Theater, Broadway | [87] [88] |
Year | Title | Voice role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2008 | Iron Man | Tony Stark | Iron Man was voiced by Stephen Stanton | [89] |
Year | Title | Artist | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | "River" | Himself | [90] [91] |
2001 | "I Want Love" | Elton John | [92] |
2004 | "The Futurist" | Himself | [93] |
James Howard Woods is an American actor. Known for fast-talking, intense roles on screen and stage, he has received numerous accolades, including three Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He started his career in minor roles on and off-Broadway before making his Broadway debut in The Penny Wars (1969), followed by Borstal Boy (1970), The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1971) and Moonchildren (1972). Woods' early film roles include The Visitors (1972), The Way We Were (1973) and Night Moves (1975). He starred in the NBC miniseries Holocaust (1978) opposite Meryl Streep.
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 since the late 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.
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).
Two Girls and a Guy is a 1997 American black comedy-drama film written and directed by James Toback and produced by Edward R. Pressman and Chris Hanley. It stars Robert Downey Jr., Heather Graham and Natasha Gregson Wagner.
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.
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.
Matthew McConaughey is an American actor who made his breakthrough by starring in the Richard Linklater-directed coming of age comedy Dazed and Confused in 1993. His first lead role was in the 1996 film adaptation of the John Grisham novel A Time to Kill. The following year, McConaughey played the lawyer Roger Sherman Baldwin opposite Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins in the Steven Spielberg-directed historical drama Amistad, and also starred opposite Jodie Foster in the Robert Zemeckis-directed science fiction drama Contact. In 1998, he appeared in the Linklater-directed comedy-drama The Newton Boys. During the 2000s, McConaughey was typecast as a romantic comedy lead in the films The Wedding Planner (2001), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003), Failure to Launch (2006), and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009).
Denzel Washington is an American actor known for his performance on stage and screen. Washington made his feature film debut in Carbon Copy (1981). In 1982, Washington made his first appearance in the medical drama St. Elsewhere as Dr. Philip Chandler. The role proved to be the breakthrough in his career. He starred as Private First Class Melvin Peterson in the drama A Soldier's Story (1984). The film was an adaptation of the Off-Broadway play A Soldier's Play (1981–1983) in which Washington had earlier portrayed the same character.
American actress Scarlett 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 in the black comedy Ghost World (2001). Two years later, Johansson played a young woman in a listless marriage 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).
Anthony Edward Stark, or Tony 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 creating 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.
Woody Harrelson is an American actor who made his film debut as an uncredited extra in Harper Valley PTA (1978). His breakthrough role was as bartender Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom Cheers (1985–1993), which garnered Harrelson a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series from a total of five nominations. He would later reprise the character in other television shows, such as Frasier and The Simpsons. In 1992, Harrelson starred opposite Wesley Snipes in White Men Can't Jump. He then appeared in the Oliver Stone-directed Natural Born Killers (1994) alongside Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Downey Jr. For his performance as free-speech activist Larry Flynt in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and an Academy Award for Best Actor. He next appeared in The Thin Red Line (1998).