All marvel fans must have heard the saying,
"With great power comes great responsibility.”
But as it turns out, this is not true for Robert Drowney Jr. Who potrayed our favourite marvel hero, Iron man.
We all have enjoyed the defeat of ultron in the hands of Iron Man (which was really difficult, phew!) But what most of us doesn’t know is that, the one who is acting on the screen as Iron man, is no less than a real life fighter.
Early Life and career
Robert had a very, very, very difficult childhood and adulthood before he gained fame. He started taking drugs , along with his father ( who permitted Young Robert to take drugs, being a drug addict himself), at the age of FIVE!!!!
His father later admitted that it was his biggest regret to had let Robert take drugs.
But surprisingly, it can be said that Robert’s father was his only breaker and maker. Besides of introducing Robert to Drugs, his father also introduced Young Robert to the world of films, as he was a director and actor himself.
Robert made his first acting debut in his father’s comedy film, Pound(1970). In the following years, he acted in several short film and movies. But none of it brought him with much fame.
In 1985 , Robert was hired as a younger cast in Saturday Night Live (SNL),which was a late night comedy show. But judging young Robert’s work as a new cast , the Rolling magazine called him “the worst SNL cast member”.
Following years had been like a “broken rollercoaster” for Robert. There were ups and downs in his movie and acting career. Some of his movies that he made during this period were : Tuff Turf(1985), Weird science(1985), Pretty in Pink(1986). But in all of these films, he never got a lead or main character role.
In 1987, he got his actual lead role in the movie, Pick-Up Artist.
Robert’s Downfall
But as his career was just moving towards success, he entered his “dark days”.
From 1996 to 2001, there came severe set backs in Robert’s career. This set backs were , alone , enough to break any man completely. But how Robert reacted to these setbacks, really gives us all goosebumps.
In April 1996, Robert got arrested due to charges related to drugs. It was reported that at the time of arrest, he was carrying an unloaded hand gun.
Though he was set free, after a month he was again arrested due to trespassing into a neighbor’s home under the influence of drugs, and sleeping on their bed.
In the following years, he got arrested several times. In 1999,he was sentenced to a rehabilitation prison in California and all of his pending projects on films were “wrapped up and closed”.
In 2000, Robert was released from the rehabilitation prison and he was again arrested the same year under the influence and possession of drugs .
In 2001, he was arrested one last time which led to his firing from Ally McBeal, a drama serial, Even though he was having a good rating.
During this turmoil situation, Robert’s wife left him, leaving him completely devastated mentally.
His One Last Decision
Now, Robert was left with two options: either fall deeper into the hole of destruction by submitting in to depression and giving up trying; or he had the option of “trying again and again until good days come”.
Robert had every reasons to quit trying after all of these had happened. But surprisingly, he tried again. He rose up again from his own ashes. He invested all his energy to give one last shot towards career. And he succeeded.
He made several moves and TV shows. He was able to quickly recover his way to main stream films in mid 2000’s.
His well known film, Gothika, gave him soo much fame that after this movie, he started getting calls for lead roles.
In 2008, his dream of becoming a part of a blockbuster movie came true. He starred in two successful and famous films : Tropic thunder and Iron man.
Upon exhibiting his role as Iron man, Robert really got blend into the character. He said that he “found much resemblance with his life and Tony Stark’s life”, who was the iron man in Marvel’s comic.
He did his part as Iron man so flawlessly that actors and directors were calling him “Tony Stark in real life”.
Present Life
Robert Downey Jr. is now as successful as most other actors could only dream of. He got married again in 2005 with Susan Levin and now has Three children
As of now, he has a net worth of $300 million and many beautiful houses and villas.
Robert Downey Jr's futuristic villa
Surely he wouldn’t have seen these beautiful days, if he would have given up trying.
Needless to say, if Tony Sta….Sorry, Robert would have given up on himself, then the role of Tony Stark could never have seen a more potent person to play the role as himself.
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