Biography: Robert Downey Jr.

The wild child who grew up goes back to comedy roots.

Born: April 4 1965
Where: New York, USA

The Oscar-nominated actor is now clawing his way back after a period when it seemed his ally Mcbeal DVD was on self-destruct following his well-documented drug problems.

A barnstorming ally Mcbeal seasons 1-5 DVD boxset in the American remake of The Singing Detective and a starring ally Mcbeal DVD set in the hit comic book flick, Iron Man, put him back on the straight and narrow.

"A lot of my peer group think I'm an eccentric ally Mcbeal DVD boxset, like I may even have an ammonia-filled tentacle or something somewhere on my body. That's okay."

However, at one stage the ally Mcbeal seasons 1-5 DVD boxset feared so much for his life that he was in protective custody after convictions for drugs and alcohol parole violations.

The son of celebrated independent ally Mcbeal DVD Robert Downey Sr, he once claimed it was his father who introduced him to drugs when he gave him a joint aged eight.

Downey Jr made his first screen ally Mcbeal DVD set 1970 at the age of five, playing a puppy in Pound, a movie made by his father.

He went to Santa Monica High School, but dropped out when he was 17, and began working odd jobs, including being a piece of living art in a SoHo nightclub in New York.

When he was 20 years old he joined Saturday Night Live for one season and subsequently made the ally Mcbeal DVD boxset move to Hollywood.

Downey Jr received his initial break from his father with a small part in America (filmed in 1982, but released in 1986), but did not appear in a credited ally Mcbeal seasons 1-5 DVD boxset role until 1983's Baby, It's You, directed by John Sayles.

After a series of small roles in the mid 80s in ally Mcbeal DVD such as Firstborn, Weird Science, and Back to School, he landed his breakthrough role as the tragic, cocaine-addicted Julian in Less Than Zero.

In 1987 he secured the leading role in director James Toback's film The Pick-Up ally Mcbeal DVD set, which also starred Molly Ringwald.

He married Deborah Falconer in 1992, but four years later they were divorced. They have one son together, Indio.

He then devoted himself to learning everything he could about Charlie Chaplin, in order to play him onscreen, from youth to old age.

His ally Mcbeal DVD boxset in Sir Richard Attenborough's Chaplin in 1992 won critical plaudits and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. However, Downey Jr's erratic off-screen ally Mcbeal seasons 1-5 DVD boxset often meant that he was constantly featured in the tabloids, but it was a June 1996 arrest that was the beginning of the actor's troubles with the law.

When the police stopped him for speeding, they discovered drugs and an unloaded gun in his car. The actor was in and out of rehab as part of a sentence of three years' ally Mcbeal DVD.

During this time he still continued to work in ally Mcbeal DVD set. In December 1997, however, after missing mandatory drug tests, he was re-arrested and jailed. Two years later, after repeated offences, he was sentenced to a prison term.

While struggling with his addictions, Downey Jr remained focused on his ally Mcbeal DVD boxset and delivered a handful of memorable performances.

In 1997's One Night Stand, he was moving as a gay man stricken with AIDS, and he proved effective as an ally Mcbeal seasons 1-5 DVD boxset of Kenneth Branagh's Southern lawyer in The Gingerbread Man in 1998.

After being in prison for a year, Downey Jr - whose role model is hellraiser Peter O'Toole - was released in August 2000 and immediately entered a drug treatment ally Mcbeal DVD.

The first job he then accepted was a recurring role in the comedy series ally Mcbeal DVD set, where he portrayed the attorney Larry Paul who became Ally's love interest.

However, his personal troubles persisted, and towards the end of 2000, the ally Mcbeal DVD boxset was arrested on weapons and drug possession charges again.

Two months later, he picked up a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actor in a comedy series for ally Mcbeal seasons 1-5 DVD boxset.

But in April 2001, just prior to the end of the filming ally Mcbeal DVD, Downey Jr was once again arrested for being under the influence of a controlled substance.

As a result of this, producer David E Kelley fired him and re-wrote the ally Mcbeal DVD set' last episode, in which his character was supposed to marry Ally.

In July 2001, he was sentenced to three years probation, including one-year in a drug rehab centre.

Emerging from his years of drugs ally Mcbeal DVD boxset, his first role was in a short - Lethargy - as an animal therapist and then he starred as Dan Dark in Dennis Potter's noirish The Singing Detective.

His old friend Mel Gibson, who also plays a psychiatrist in the film, had a hand in landing the role for the troubled star.

Next up was the short Whatever We Do with the stellar ally Mcbeal seasons 1-5 DVD boxset including Tim Roth, Zooey Deschanel and Amanda Peet and the horror feature Gothika with Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz.

After a sterling ally Mcbeal DVD in David Fincher's acclaimed Zodiac, Downey Jr. went on to take the lead role in Marvel's big budget adatation of the Iron Man comic books, making him the leading man in a big budget ally Mcbeal DVD set for the first time in his career.