Born: Robert John Downey Jr. on 4 April 1965, in New York City, New York, US.

Robert Downey Jr. is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning American actor and musician. He became known during the late 1980s and early 1990s after a series of well-reviewed performances in Hollywood films. During a period of drug addiction in the late 1990s, Downey Jr. continued his acting career, appearing on the television series Ally McBeal. More recent films include a number of supporting and lead film roles, including Good Night and Good Luck, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Zodiac, and Iron Man.

Downey Jr. was born in New York City, the son of Elsie (née Ford), a dancer and singer, and Robert Downey Sr. (né Elias), an actor, writer, producer, cinematographer, and director of underground films. He has a sister, Alison. Downey Jr.'s mother was of German and Scottish descent, and his father was of Irish and Jewish ancestry.

During his childhood, Downey Jr. had a minor role playing a puppy in his father's film Pound (1970). As a teen, he attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York. Downey Jr. grew up in California with his father.

At the age of twenty, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live for one season. He did a number of celebrity impersonations, including Elvis Presley, George Michael, John Cougar Mellencamp, Sean Penn, Paul Simon, and John Oates from Hall and Oates.

He went on to star in The Pick-up Artist in 1987. The same year, he portrayed the drug-addicted rich boy in Less Than Zero. In 1992, he starred as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, a role which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. His other films in the 1990s included Heart and Souls, Only You, Natural Born Killers, and Restoration.

In 1997, Downey Jr. was arrested and jailed for missing mandatory court-imposed drug tests. He was imprisoned at California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran, between August 1999 and August 2000 for similar offenses. Following his release in 2000, Downey joined the cast of the hit television series Ally McBeal, playing Larry Paul, the new love interest of Calista Flockhart's title character. He won a Golden Globe award and was nominated for an Emmy Award.

He also appeared as a writer and singer on Vonda Shephard's Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life album and sang in a duet with Sting in an episode of the series (a version of The Police's 1983 hit "Every Breath You Take"). Initially, it appeared that Downey Jr.'s problems were behind him, but before the end of his first season on Ally McBeal, he had already relapsed into drug use and was summarily fired from the series by producer David E. Kelley. This led to a year in a drug treatment facility and three years probation.

I've always felt like such an outsider in this industry. Because I'm so insane I guess.

Downey Jr. returned to mainstream film in the mid 2000s, with Gothika, for which Joel Silver withheld 40 percent of his salary until after production wrapped as insurance against his addictive behaviour; similar insurance has become standard in his contracts since then. He had three roles in 2005 and seven roles in 2006. Among them are Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang; Good Night, and Good Luck; The Shaggy Dog; A Scanner Darkly; Zodiac; and Fur. More recent releases include a starring role in the film Iron Man (2008) as the titular character.

Downey Jr. dated actress Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1980s. He dated Marisa Tomei in the early 1990s, acting together in Only You and Chaplin. He married actress Deborah Falconer on May 29, 1992, and has a son named Indio. They divorced on April 26, 2004. On August 27, 2005, Downey Jr. married producer Susan Levin, whom he met on the set of Gothika.

Downey Jr. practices Wing Chun Kung Fu, which he has credited with helping him beat his addiction.