ACTOR · BORN 1965
Robert Downey Jr.
- Born
- 4 April 1965
80 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
19 Facts About Robert Downey Jr.'s Life and Family
- #001
During promotion for Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Robert Downey Jr. walked out of an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy when pressed about his "dark" past, because he felt it was inappropriate for children to watch. He told Howard Stern that he would walk out again if something like that happened in the future.
- #004
When Downey was 10 years old and living in London, he attended Perry House School in Chelsea and trained in classical ballet.
- #008
His father introduced him to drugs and offered him marijuana when he was eight years old.
- #012
Robert Downey Jr. is a cousin of singer Harry Connick Jr., news anchor Barbara Walters and stuntman Garner Ted Aukerman.
- #015
As a result of his father's work (Robert Downey Sr. was an independent filmmaker), the younger Downey spent much of his childhood on the move. He lived at various points in Connecticut, New York, California, London, Paris and Woodstock.
- #017
He married his first wife after dating her for only 42 days.
- #018
While drunk, he entered a neighbor's Malibu house that the neighbor thought was his own and fell asleep in the children's bed. He was arrested because he was under the influence of drugs, which was his third probation violation.
- #027
During a traffic stop for speeding, he was arrested on charges of driving under the influence, heroin possession and having an unloaded gun in his truck. This was the first reported incident of him breaking the law at age 31. He received a three-year suspended prison sentence and was placed on probation with requirements for random drug testing and drug counseling.
- #031
His son Indio Falconer Downey was born on 7 September 1993 with his first wife, Deborah Falconer.
- #033
While in the Los Angeles County Jail for a parole violation, he got into a fight with another inmate and was treated for a cut on his nose.
- #034
He is a passionate collector of exotic watches, with brands including Breitling, Omega, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Rolex, Patek Philippe and Baume & Mercier (his grandfather's).
- #038
After Downey committed three probation violations for drug and alcohol addiction in the three years since avoiding prison and being placed on probation, Malibu Judge Lawrence Mira said he was out of options. He said he was sentencing Downey to prison to save his life, because Downey would not take on the responsibility of avoiding alcohol and drug use on his own. The judge reinstated the three-year state prison sentence that had been suspended in 1996. Downey spent two weeks at a state prison reception center in Wasco, California, for orientation. On 25 August 1999 he was transferred to the "SATF" (Substance Abuse Treatment Facility) prison in Corcoran, California, which houses drug-addicted inmates. Planned premiere date: 2 November 2000. The SATF is across from the other Corcoran prison, where inmates were shot and killed in the exercise yard during fights in the 1990s. Downey's lawyers applied to the Malibu judge several times over the past 11 months requesting Downey's release, but the judge refused.
- #041
Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan Downey's first child, Exton Elias Downey, was born on February 7, 2012. The baby weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. and measured 20 inches.
- #047
Robert Downey Jr. married his second wife, Gothika (2003) producer Susan Downey, on August 27, 2005 in Amagansett, New York.
- #055
Robert Downey Jr.'s parents divorced when he was 11 years old.
- #059
Downey's paternal grandfather, Robert Elias, was of Lithuanian Jewish descent, while his paternal grandmother, the model Betty McLoughlin, was half Irish and half Hungarian Jewish. Downey's mother's ancestry is English, Scottish, German and Swiss-German.
- #066
At the age of five, Robert spoke his first on-screen dialogue in his father Robert Downey Sr.'s Pound (1970): "Have any hair on your balls?"
- #077
Before playing the role in Iron Man (2008), Robert Downey Jr. had worked in films with three actors who played Batman: George Clooney, Val Kilmer and Michael Keaton. In Iron Man 3 (2013) he worked with Clooney's cousin, Miguel Ferrer.
- #080
Robert Downey Jr. is the son of Robert Downey Sr. and Elsie Downey.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work