Robert Downey Jr. has more than earned his street cred as one of the world’s highest-paid and quite frankly adored actors. Over the last five decades, he’s become regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation, best known on-screen for his performances as Charlie Chaplin in 1992’s Chaplin, Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie’s movie trilogy, and, of course, Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
However, this industry vet’s rise to fame began with an unconventional upbringing as the son of writer-actress Elsie Ford Downey and avant-garde filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., which included an early immersion into a drug-addled Hollywood lifestyle. Even while serving as the box office’s golden boy, RDJ would later battle several highly-publicized personal demons, including addiction … but more on all of that below.
This fan-favorite movie star eventually turned his life around in the mid-2000s, rising up from the ashes of a seemingly dead career through a miraculous comeback after kicking the habit with the help of his future wife, producer Susan Downey (née Levin). But where did this inspirational journey toward sobriety and Tinseltown reign begin? This is the tragic, real-life story of Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.’s troubled childhood
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In Robert Downey Jr.’s words, he had an “interesting” childhood (via Vanity Fair) — but as you delve further into his past, you’ll find that’s quite the understatement. Both of his artistic parents, who divorced when he was 13, struggled with drug and alcohol addiction and led lifestyles that meant traveling for work and wild party invites. Naturally, Downey caught the acting bug at a young age, but, according to Biography, never stayed in one place for too long during his youth, living in New York City, London, and Santa Monica. He also infamously had his first taste of marijuana when he was just six or seven.
As his dad, Robert Downey Sr., later admitted to The Guardian: “I passed him a joint. And suddenly I knew I had made a terrible, stupid mistake … giving a little kid a toke of grass just to be funny.” For his part, RDJ once explained that the father-son duo used drugs to bond, saying in an interview for the New Breed book (via People), “It was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew how.”
While an Urban Institute study shows that this type of instability can have a negative effect on children, Downey has maintained an optimistic outlook on his unusual upbringing. “To me, we were an artistic family trying to find normalcy,” he told Vanity Fair, before quipping that marijuana “was a staple — like rice!”
The movie role that worsened Robert Downey Jr.’s drug use
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1987 was an exciting year for Robert Downey Jr., who nabbed his breakout role in the movie, Less than Zero. The young actor’s vulnerable portrayal of drug addict Julian Wells, whose addiction spirals amid an attempt to get sober, captivated audiences. The New York Times referred to his performance as “desperately moving.” Unfortunately, the role proved to be too much to handle, and Downey’s life began to imitate his art.
By the time the drama was released, Downey was 22 and his lifelong battle with addiction began to get worse. “Until that movie, I took my drugs after work and on the weekends,” he later explained to The Guardian. “Maybe I’d turn up hungover on the set, but no more so than the stuntman.” However, Downey went on to say that this changed while filming Less Than Zero. “For me, the role was like the ghost of Christmas future,” he noted. “The character was an exaggeration of myself. Then things changed, and, in some ways, I became an exaggeration of the character. That lasted far longer than it needed to last.”
Downey’s downward spiral into addiction would unfortunately become infamous over the next 15 years, landing him not only in rehab, but also behind bars, until finally kicking the habit for good in the summer of 2003.
Robert Downey Jr.’s addiction led to his breakup with Sarah Jessica Parker
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Before Robert Downey Jr. attained the glitz and glam of A-lister status, he and Sarah Jessica Parker met on the set of the movie Firstborn in 1984. At the time, the two 19-year-olds were on their way to becoming household names, and things got serious fast — two months after their first date, they moved in together.
When speaking about his time with Parker, Downey admitted to being far from mature, telling Parade in 2008 (via People), “I liked to drink, and I had a drug problem, and that didn’t jibe with Sarah Jessica, because it is the furthest thing from what she is.” He went on to say that Parker did her best to cope with his lifestyle: “She provided me a home and understanding. She tried to help me. She was so miffed when I didn’t get my act together.” The duo broke up after seven years together, and Parker shed some light on the split in 2018.
“There was a huge amount of time spent making sure he was okay,” she told People. “At a certain point, I had the courage to say, ‘I’m going to walk away and I’m just going to pray that you don’t die.’” Meanwhile, Downey previously explained to Howard Stern (via Entertainment Tonight), “We were at a very conservative relationship concerning the fact that she was normal and I was out of my mind. I did the best I could.”
Robert Downey Jr.’s first brushes with the law
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By his early 30s, Robert Downey Jr.’s drug addiction had led him down a dangerous path, resulting in his June 1996 arrest. According to UPI, the actor was pulled over for speeding in Malibu, with authorities claiming he’d been “driving erratically and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol,” before finding “black tar heroin, crack and powdered cocaine and an unloaded .357 Magnum handgun in his pickup truck.” Downey later posted bail but was charged with felony counts of drug possession, along with misdemeanor charges for DUI and possession of a concealed weapon.
The following month, Downey was infamously found asleep amid a drugged stupor — clad in just his underpants, with his clothes folded nearby — in his neighbor’s child’s empty bed, in what became known as “the Goldilocks incident,” per The Washington Post. Luckily, his neighbors decided not to press trespassing charges, but he was court-ordered to attend rehab. He escaped after two days, hitchhiked to a friend’s house, and was taken to jail for violating the order hours later, before finding himself sent off to another rehab center.
Downey was an Oscar-nominated actor for Chaplin by this time in his career, but that didn’t mean Judge Lawrence Mira let him off the hook when he pleaded no contest to his initial charges. That November, Downey was sentenced to an additional six months of live-in rehabilitation with periodic drug tests and three years of probation (via Vanity Fair).
Robert Downey Jr. found himself behind bars
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By the time Robert Downey Jr. was accused of skipping a drug test in late 1997, Judge Lawrence Mira had grown frustrated and sentenced the actor to 180 days at the Los Angeles County Jail for violating probation, according to Vanity Fair. “I’m going to incarcerate you in a way that is very unpleasant to you,” he told Downey. “… I am willing to send you to a state prison. I don’t care who you are.”
Downey was moved to solitary confinement after getting into a fight with a few inmates, and was eventually released over two months early to attend another 120 days in rehab. Unfortunately, he was still battling addiction in mid-1999, and, after missing more court-ordered drug tests, was thrown back into the legal system. Per the New York Post, Downey requested remaining in the county’s rehab program at his hearing that August, saying of his ongoing struggle, “It’s like I have a shotgun in my mouth, and I got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal.” But that emotional statement garnered little sympathy from the judge, who told Downey, “We tried rehabilitation … and it simply hasn’t worked.”
Downey’s A-list lawyer, Robert Shapiro, was shocked when Mira handed down the maximum sentence of three years in state prison, telling reporters that the judge had “interrupted” the actor’s “progress” in his journey toward sobriety. Downey left the courtroom as inmate number P50522.
