Three decades after his first nomination, on Sunday Robert Downey Jr finally received the Oscar – best supporting actor for “Oppenheimer” -, consecration of a career marked by a long crossing of the desert. This Oscar comes at the culmination of an awards season in which the American has won numerous statuettes for his portrayal of Lewis Strauss, a bureaucrat-turned-politician who orchestrated the ban in the United States of Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. “I thank my disastrous childhood and the Academy, in that order,” said the 58-year-old actor as he collected his statuette. «RDJ» had already been nominated twice for an Oscar, for «Charlot» in 1993 and «Tropic Thunder» in 2008. Between these first two nominations, however, the actor experienced the lowest point of his career, mainly due of his addictions.
Robert Downey Jr was born on April 4, 1965, his father (Robert Downey Sr) was an actor and director. Young Robert therefore seemed predestined for a Hollywood career. He made his film debut at the age of 5, in his father’s film «Pound». As a teenager he was part of the “Brat Pack” (literally, the “gang of brats”), a nickname given by the press in the 1980s to a group of young actors – including Demi Moore – who became very popular starring in films with adolescent themes of the time.
His profile took a decisive turn at the beginning of the 1990s with «Charlot», in which he played the king of silent cinema. In addition to the Oscar nomination, his role earned him a Bafta. But as his career experiences a seemingly inexorable rise, he finds himself dragged into a devastating spiral of addiction. He says he tried drugs for the first time when he was still a child, because his father also used them.
His multiple arrests in the late 1990s were the joy of the tabloid press. After several failed detox treatments, he was sentenced to three years in a therapeutic institution in 1999. He will stay there for a year. His personal problems cost him several roles, including the critically acclaimed one in the television series «Ally McBeal». But in the end «RDJ» managed to tame his demons. In a 2004 interview with Oprah Winfrey, he confessed that his latest arrest had forced him to reflect. «I said to myself: “You know what? I don’t think I can continue like this.” And I asked for help.”
The former Charlot returned to the big screen in 2003 in «The Singing Detective» alongside Mel Gibson, then «Gothika» by Mathieu Kassovitz, with Halle Berry. The end of his journey through the desert will come, however, only five years later, when he will get the role of «Iron Man», a Marvel superhero that he will play in nine films, until 2019. In addition to the role of iron man, «RDJ» he also donned the costume of an energetic Sherlock Holmes in two films by Englishman Guy Ritchie, with Jude Law as his sidekick Watson. A third part is planned. He is also due to star in a Vietnam War thriller soon, in which he plays a CIA agent.
Robert Downey Jr has been married to producer Susan Downey for more than 20 years, to whom he says he owes his salvation from drugs and alcohol. With the statuette in her hands, he turned to her: “I thank my wife – he said -, she found me like an abandoned puppy and, like a good vet, brought me back to life”. «My secret? I needed this job more than he needed me,” added the star. Downey and his wife have two children, a boy (2012) and a girl (2014). The actor already had a son, Indio (1993), from his first marriage to singer Deborah Falconer.