Robert Downey Jr.’s life is a complex tale of a Hollywood bad boy on the brink, an epic of sin and redemption—the story of a real-life superhero.

On screen, he moved effortlessly through roles. But off screen, his youth was a self-destructive spiral. Downey was as famous in rehab centers and jails as he was on film.

Back in 1999, a 34-year-old Downey stood in an orange jumpsuit and slippers, pleading with a judge for leniency. It was too late. He’d been through six rehab programs and three parole violations. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

It was just one of many pivotal moments in the extraordinary life of Robert Downey Jr., aka Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, aka Inmate P50522.

Before he was Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. was inmate P50522. Photo: Page Six

Before he was Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. was inmate P50522. Photo: Page Six

A childhood surrounded by drugs

Drugs were a constant presence in the Downey family home in Greenwich Village, a bohemian enclave in Manhattan, New York. Born in 1965 into a show business family, his father, Bob Downey Sr., was a pioneering filmmaker in the era of underground counterculture films and theater.

His mother, actress Elsie Downey, once her husband’s muse, battled her own struggles with alcohol. His parents eventually divorced in 1978.

Downey was only 5 when he starred in his father’s film, Pound (1970). By 6, he was sipping white wine and smoking marijuana at home, encouraged by his father. By 8, he was addicted to drugs. It was the only kind of early love he understood.

“When my dad and I did drugs together, it was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew how,” Downey explained in an interview published in The New Breed magazine.

Downey was exposed to and surrounded by drugs from a young age.

He idolized his father. “I remember going around the Village and seeing my dad in a Superman T-shirt, and the neighbors would point at me and go, ‘Hey, that’s Bob’s kid,’” the actor recalled in an interview with Vanity Fair.

Downey learned his craft on his father’s film sets and moved to Santa Monica, California, to live with his father after the family split. Actors like Sean Penn, Rob Lowe, and Emilio Estevez were his high school classmates, but Downey dropped out at 16 to pursue acting full time.

He was considered one of the members of the "Brat Pack"—Hollywood's elite youth group including Ally Sheedy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, and Rob Lowe.

He joined the cast of NBC's live sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" during the 1985-1986 season. But it was his role in the 1987 film Less Than Zero that launched him into the Hollywood spotlight. Ironically, he played a drug addict.

Downey’s addiction began to affect his acting. Things worsened during the filming of Less Than Zero.

“Until that movie, I took my drugs after work and on the weekends. Maybe a glass of wine at dinner. I was kind of like a functioning—you know, not a functioning addict but a functioning professional person,” he told The Guardian. “That changed on Less Than Zero, and, in some ways, I became an exaggeration of the character. That lasted far longer than it needed to.”

Downey’s acting career continued to flourish despite his drug use, earning him an Oscar nomination for his lead role in Chaplin and a BAFTA award.

“Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker dated Robert Downey Jr. in the 1980s but they split due to his drug addiction. Photo: Page Six

“Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker dated Robert Downey Jr. in the 1980s but they split due to his drug addiction. Photo: Page Six

The fall

But the actor’s off-screen addiction baffled directors, fans, and critics. Downey had added heroin and crack cocaine to his daily repertoire.

In 1995, while filming Home for the Holidays, directed by Jodie Foster, Downey spiraled so out of control that Foster temporarily halted production for a heart-to-heart, warning him about the abyss his addiction was leading him toward.

Actor Sean Penn, known to be Downey's best friend, couldn't hide his worry. “He’s a poster boy for the idea that jail doesn’t cure addiction,” Penn said.

Early in 1996, increasingly concerned for his friend, Penn broke into Downey’s house, grabbed his keys and took him to a rehab center in Tucson. Downey fled.

In 6/1996, Downey was arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, and an unloaded .357 Magnum handgun while speeding down Sunset Boulevard.

A month later, while out on parole, Downey wandered into a neighbor’s house through an unlocked front door while high and fell asleep in one of the beds. The family was sympathetic and declined to press charges for trespassing.

In 11/1996, after completing court-ordered rehab, Downey received six more months of residential treatment, three years of probation, and was ordered to undergo mandatory drug testing.

Robert Downey Jr. is taken into custody after being charged with cocaine possession and driving under the influence on 12/8/1997 in Malibu, California. Photo: Fox 10

Robert Downey Jr. is taken into custody after being charged with cocaine possession and driving under the influence on 12/8/1997 in Malibu, California. Photo: Fox 10

By 1997, judges had lost patience. He violated probation three times by failing to submit to drug tests and served six months in the Los Angeles County jail. It wasn’t Downey’s last court appearance.

In 1999, he again dodged another drug test and served nearly a year in state prison in Corcoran, California.

In 2001, while on probation, Downey was found barefoot, wandering around Culver City, California, and arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs. The incident got him fired from the television show Ally McBeal along with other film and stage work. Instead of being sent back to jail, the actor was ordered into a year of rehab and three years’ probation.

By this point, Downey was homeless and nearly bankrupt.

Iron Man rises

Accepting an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in 2024, Downey gave special thanks to his wife, film producer Susan Levin. “She found me, a feral rescue pet, and she loved me back,” he said. “And that’s why I’m here.”

Meeting Susan in 2003 was a lifeline. She was a producer on the film Gothika, which Downey starred in.

Susan later said she wasn’t “super-excited” when she met Downey on set. But she gave him an ultimatum: quit drugs or lose her. The ultimatum seemed to work. They married in 2005 and remain together.

Robert and Susan in 2010 when the actor won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his role in Sherlock Holmes. Photo: People

Robert and Susan in 2010 when the actor won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his role in Sherlock Holmes. Photo: People

Downey said he got sober through 12-step programs, yoga, meditation, and therapy, but when he announced to Hollywood that he was clean and ready to work again, it was a tough sell.

Downey was virtually uninsurable; most filmmakers were unwilling—or unable—to pay the enormous insurance premiums required to have him, a convicted addict, on set.

Downey’s career only began to revive when actor Mel Gibson personally vouched for his liability insurance so he could star in the 2003 film The Singing Detective. From there, Downey started acting regularly.

Although Downey had achieved critical success throughout his career, he had yet to appear in a blockbuster film. That changed in 2007, when director Jon Favreau tapped him for the lead role in Iron Man.

Marvel was hesitant about Downey. His troubled past seemed too risky for such a large project. But Favreau saw something in Downey that others didn’t, and fought hard to cast him. Marvel relented, with close supervision and a modest initial salary.

But Favreau’s gamble paid off big time. The film grossed $100.8 million in its opening weekend and spawned a $5 billion Marvel franchise. Downey went on to earn millions more in the Sherlock Holmes franchise and related Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

Once considered toxic, Downey now found himself in high demand.

Robert Downey Jr. (right) and Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer, a film that won seven Oscars, including awards for both actors pictured. Photo: Oppenheimer

Robert Downey Jr. (right) and Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer, a film that won seven Oscars, including awards for both actors pictured. Photo: Oppenheimer

In 2023, he played the villainous bureaucrat in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer—“the best film” Downey had ever been in, by his own account.

The film triumphed globally, earning him numerous awards, including a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Twenty-five years sober, Downey’s career continues to thrive. His comeback is one of Hollywood’s most impressive and inspiring stories of redemption.

Downey has put his past substance abuse behind him. As Iron Man said: “My armor was never a distraction or a hobby, it was a cocoon. And now, I'm a changed man.”

Hai Thu (CNN, Fox 10, Page Six, Vanity Fair)