Robert Downey Sr. has passed away at the age of 85
Robert Downey Sr., the actor, director and filmographer known for his offbeat films, credits in prestigious flicks, and fatherhood of Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr., has died aged 85. Passing away after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, in the same city — New York — where he grew up as a kid, Downey Sr. will be remembered as a ‘true maverick filmmaker’, to quote the words of his son, who posted a moving tribute to his namesake on social media.
Born in 1936 and growing up in the suburban idyll of Rockville Centre, Downey Sr. was also the son of a Robert, and was named Robert Elias Jr. until he changed his name to Robert Downey in order to enlist in the army while underage.
He came of age as a filmographer during the 1960s — a countercultural period that has passed into legend, and whose fruits include the tense and stylish thriller Psycho, the psychedelic 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, a self-reflexive trip into the head of a famous Italian filmmaker struggling to direct a science fiction epic.
Downey Sr.’s first notable film was Ball’s Bluff, a fascinating piece about an American Civil War soldier who wakes up in Central Park in 1961. The trope of historical figures waking up in the modern day is not one we see often in films right now — and perhaps it made a difference that Downey Sr. was shooting in black and white, not colour — giving the film the feel of one of the many black and white photographs taken of the Civil War itself.
Then at the end of the decade there was 1969’s Putney Swope, a satirical comedy based around the titular character, the only black man on the board of an advertising firm who ends up becoming the chairman and renaming the business Truth and Soul, Inc. The film was selected for the United States’ National Film Registry in 2016 as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
Downey Sr.’s sizeable output also included the Western Greaser’s Palace and 3 episodes of the Twilight Zone television series. As an actor, he has credits in two films of Paul Thomas Anderson’s — Boogie Nights and Magnolia — and his last credit was as Judge Ramos in the 2011 comedy Tower Heist.
Robert Sr. was born on June 24, 1936. was married three times; his first wife was actress Elsie Anne Downey, with whom he had two children, Allyson Downey and Robert Downey, Jr. They divorced in 1982 and he went on to marry actress Laura Ernst in 1991, who passed away due to Lou Gehrig’s Disease three years later. He is survived by his third wife, Rosemary Rogers, and by both Allyson and Robert Jr.
