Robert Downey Jr. is an Academy Award nominated actor who is known for his versatility moving between independent movies and blockbusters.However during the mid 1990s Downey Jr. was more well known for his substance abuse and criminal record than he was for his movie roles.Downey Jr. had acting in his blood, being the son of actor, director, writer, producer and cinematographer Robert Downey Sr. appearing in his father's film Pound at the age of five.He went on to attend the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Centre during his teenage years before joining the cast of Saturday Night Live at twenty.Despite having worked in a string of movies in the late eighties it was 1992's Chaplin that was the actor's breakthrough role.Chaplin was a dramatised biography of the highs and lows in the life of one of the foremost comic geniuses the screen has ever known. Presented as the reminiscences of an elderly Chaplin, the narrative opens with the comic's impoverished East London childhood, and progresses through his vaudeville and Hollywood successes to his virtual banishment from the United States, and eventually his welcome back to accept a special Academy Award -- 20 years too late.
The film was criticised for not sticking completely to the truth in some aspects of Chaplin's life but Downey Jr's performance earned him a Best Actor Academy Award nomination, losing our to Al Pacino.Natural Born Killers was another success for the actor in 1994, a satirical film about serial killers.
But in 1996 he was arrested for drink driving and being in possession of black tar heroin, cocaine and an unloaded .357 Magnum revolver.
He was sentenced to three years probation on weapons and drugs charges. But just twelve months later he was sent to jail six months in for violating parole.
Eighteen months later, after repeated offences, he was sentenced to three years in jail.
He was released in 2000 when an appeal ruled that he had served more than enough time to fulfil his sentence.
Still battling his addictions he became a regular cast member of hit TV show Ally Mcbeal, a role which won him a Golden Globe.
However after repeated arrests while under the influence Fox fired him from the show. He was also given three years probation including one year in a rehab clinic.
In 2003 he re-launched his movie career in The Singing Detective and Gothika alongside Halle Berry.
2005 was a very successful year for the actor starring in Shane Black's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Harry Lockhart (Downey Jr.) is basically a decent guy. Sure, he's a petty thief who skates through life on a shaky cocktail of dog-eared charm and cockeyed optimism, but he wants to do the right thing. He just doesn't know how, exactly.
Harry's perpetual bad luck takes a turn for the better when he and his partner are doing some after-hours Christmas "shopping" at a New York City toy store and the security alarm breaks up the party. (Yeah, it sounds like trouble, but keep reading.)
In making his frantic getaway from the cops, Harry inadvertently stumbles into an audition for a Hollywood detective movie,
And faster than you can say Jack Robinson, the producer flies him to Los Angeles for a screen test. Thrust into the cutthroat world of L.A.'s pros, cons, losers and wannabes, Harry is teamed with tough-guy private eye Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer), AKA "Gay Perry," to prepare him for his screen test.
Gay Perry is ruthless, relentlessly tough and - you guessed it - gay. He also has little patience for Harry, who tries out his acting skills by passing himself off as a detective. It seems like nothing short of destiny when the thief-trying- to-be-an-actor- impersonating-a-detective crosses paths with Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), an aspiring actress who needs his help.
Inspired by her hero Jonny Gossamer, a fictitious hard-boiled private eye featured in a series of pulp detective novels, Harmony moved to Hollywood to pursue her dreams...but a few years and a lot of rejections later, she's facing the harsh reality that her best days may be behind her.
When the mysterious suicide of Harmony's sister intersects with a seemingly unrelated case that Harry and Gay Perry are investigating, they suddenly find themselves embroiled in a real-life murder mystery.
Bodies surface and re-surface...long-buried family secrets erupt in present-day mayhem...and what began as a free trip to L.A. may result in Harry's one-way ticket to the city morgue.
If he's going to stay alive and become the hero that Harmony needs him to be, Harry will have to convince a reluctant Gay Perry to help him solve the case. He'll need to channel Jonny Gossamer's tough-as-nails swagger. And a little dose of luck - or is it fate? - wouldn't hurt, either.
Despite only getting a limited release the film did well with the critics but was perhaps one of the most over looked film of 2005.
Later that year he appeared in Good Night and Good Luck, directed by George Clooney and starring David Strathairn.
The film recounts the events of the mid-1950s leading up to acclaimed CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow's (David Strathairn) decision to stand up against fiery Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was out to rid the country of communism.
McCarthy's seemingly reckless behaviour, in which he condemned individuals without giving them a fair trial, angered Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly (Clooney) into action.
The resulting few episodes of Murrow's show, See It Now, found Murrow on a personal, patriotic crusade to challenge McCarthy and rid America of his callous persecution.
The film was a massive hit with the critics and went on to be nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Clooney.
He current project is the big screen adaptation of the Marvel Comic character Iron Man alongside an all star cast of Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard.
Tony Stark. Stark is a billionaire weapons manufacturer who is injured by a landmine. He is captured by Afgan forces and a dying Stark is forced to build them a weapon.
He builds an suit which acts as a life support machine for Stark who escapes and returns to the America. Here he uses the suit to fight crime.
Later this year he will star alongside Ben Stiller and jack Black in Tropic Thunder
Iron Man is released 2nd May
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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