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A little more than a decade ago, a lot of people were ready to write off Robert Downey Jr. He had struggles with substance abuse, which hurt his film career as there were many producers that didn’t want to take the chance on working with him despite his unquestionable talent. Downey would end up rebounding in a huge way, donning a superhero costume and becoming the highest paid actor in all of Hollywood. Now in his mid 50s, Downey has led one of the biggest redemption stories in acting history.

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Downey came from a family of actors, with his father (Robert Sr.) having experience both in front of and behind the camera, while his mother Elsie Ford was an actress. Downey himself was born on April 4, 1965 in New York City, and it wasn’t always the easiest upbringing. There was a lot of pressure on Downey, as well as access to substances that would set him on a dangerous path. However, Downey was able to launch an acting career of his own despite the troubles.

Downey made his acting debut in 1970 in his father’s film “Pound”, and had two more movie appearances during the rest of the decade. When he became an adult in the mid 1980s, Downey went into acting full-time, having early roles with films such as “Baby It’s You” and “Firstborn”. It was in 1985 that Downey had his breakout, starring in both the miniseries “Mussolini: The Untold Story” and became a cast member of ‘Saturday Night Live”.

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His time on “SNL” was short lived, but Downey was finding plenty of work on the big screen. He had late 1980s films with “The Pick-Up Artist”, “Back to School” and “Less Than Zero” just to name a few, keeping himself very busy during the decade of excess. Though personal issues would continue to mount, Downey would still have a lot of work in the 1990s with movies such as “Natural Born Killers”, “U.S. Marshals” and “Chaplin”, which earned Downey his first Oscar nomination.

During the early 2000s, Downey had several run-ins with the law while trying to maintain his acting career. He had been a recurring character in “Ally McBeal”, while also starring in films such as “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”, “The Shaggy Dog” and “Zodiac”. Then, things would take a turn for the better when Downey decided to get clean, and was cast as the title character in the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film “Iron Man”.

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One actor that Downey has been happy to work with throughout his career (especially during his comeback trail) is Jamie Foxx. The two starred together in “The Soloist” in 2009, and the following year had a comedy film with “Due Date”. They also have an upcoming production called “All Star Weekend” that has been in the works for several years.

In the first “Iron Man” film, Downey’s character drove around in a 1967 El Camino. Foxx wasn’t expecting quite the lavish gift on his 43rd birthday, but was extremely grateful. “He got me a 1967 vintage El Camino,” Foxx said. “It just looks fly. Plus it’s from Iron Man! I just peel out every Sunday.” It wasn’t the first time that the two had exchanged gifts, with Foxx giving Downey a pair of horses after he had moved into a ranch.

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Downey’s upswing continued while working with Foxx, as well as several other movies including multiple “Iron Man” sequels (that also led to “Avengers”) movies, as well as “Sherlock Holmes” and “Tropic Thunder”, which earned Downey his second Oscar nomination. Most of the roles that Downey has played in recent years have come from being Tony Stark/Iron Man, but he’s also played the title character in “Dolittle”, released in 2020 while also hosting “The Age of A.I.” on YouTube.

After more than a decade playing the same character and getting paid handsomely for it, Downey wrapped up his Iron Man work in 2019 with “Avengers: Endgame”, which became the highest grossing movie of all-time on a global scale. While many would have trouble getting away from such a lucrative role, it comes as a bit of relief for Downey. “The war for me is over,” he said. “I personally have alighted to greener pastures.”

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“I had an incredible 10 year run that was creatively satisfying,” Downey added. “It was very, very, very hard work and I dug very deep, but I have not been forced to explore the new frontier of what is my creative and personal life after this...Occasionally you would pull back from it and do, ‘Let me stop. Let me get off the teet of this archetype and let me see where I stand.’ And you can feel really buffeted, you can get really spun out by it.”