Robert John Downey ( Elias Jr.; June 24, 1936 – July 7, 2021) was an American filmmaker and actor. He was known for writing and directing the underground film ''

Putney Swope ''Putney Swope'' is a 1969 American satirical comedy film written and directed by Robert Downey Sr., and starring Arnold Johnson as the title character, a black advertising executive. The film satirizes the advertising world, the portrayal of ...

'', a satire on the New York

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Str ...

advertising world. According to film scholar

Wheeler Winston Dixon Wheeler Winston Dixon (born March 12, 1950) is an American filmmaker and scholar. He is an expert on film history, theory and criticism.Bill Goodykoontz, December 23, 2012, USA TodayDefining Tarantino Accessed Aug. 25, 2013, Quote = "...long, invo ...

, Downey's films during the 1960s were "strictly take-no-prisoners affairs, with minimal budgets and outrageous satire, effectively pushing forward the

countercultural A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

agenda of the day."

Early life

Downey was born Robert John Elias Jr. in the

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

borough of New York City, on June 24, 1936. He was the son of Elizabeth ( McLauchlen), a model, and Robert John Elias, who worked in management of motels and restaurants. His paternal grandparents were

Lithuanian Jews Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent are ...

, while his mother was of half

Hungarian Jewish The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...

and half Irish ancestry. He grew up in

Rockville Centre, New York Rockville Centre, commonly abbreviated as RVC, is an incorporated village located in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 24,023 at the 2010 census. Hist ...

. He changed his surname to Downey (after his stepfather, James Downey) when he wanted to enlist in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

while being underage. Downey later said he wrote an unpublished novel during his time in the army, though he spent much of his military career "in the

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...

Career

Downey initially made his mark creating very low-budget independent films aligning with the Absurdist movement, in line with

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. H ...

anti-establishment An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine ''New Statesman'' ...

, 1960s America. His work in the late 1960s and 1970s was quintessential anti-establishment, reflecting the nonconformity popularized by larger counterculture movements and given impetus by new freedoms in films, such as the breakdown of codes on

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

. In keeping with the underground tradition, his 1970s films were independently made on shoestring budgets and were relatively obscure in the Absurdist movement, finding cult notoriety. In 1961, working with film editor Fred von Bernewitz, Downey began writing and directing low-budget

16mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ed ...

s that gained an underground following, beginning with ''Ball's Bluff'' (1961), a fantasy short about a Civil War soldier who awakens in

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

in 1961. He moved into big-budget filmmaking with the

surrealistic Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

'' Greaser's Palace'' (1972). His last film was ''Rittenhouse Square'' (2005), a documentary capturing life in a Philadelphia park. Downey's films were often family affairs. His first wife appears in four of his films ('' Chafed Elbows'', '' Pound'', '' Greaser's Palace'', ''Moment to Moment''), as well as co-writing one (''Moment to Moment''). Daughter Allyson and son

Robert Downey Jr Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor and producer. His career has been characterized by critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, before a resurgence of ...

. each made their film debuts in the 1970 absurdist comedy ''Pound'' at the ages of 7 and 5, respectively; Allyson would appear in one more film by her father, ''

Up the Academy ''Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy,'' often shortened to ''Up the Academy,'' is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Robert Downey Sr. and starring Wendell Brown, Tommy Citera, Ron Leibman, Harry Teinowitz, Hutch Parker, Ralph Macchio, T ...

''. Robert Jr.'s lengthy acting résumé includes appearances in eight films directed by his father (''Pound'', '' Greaser's Palace'', ''Moment to Moment'', ''

'', ''America'', ''

Rented Lips ''Rented Lips'' is a 1988 satire comedy film directed by Robert Downey Sr., and starring his son Robert Downey Jr., as well as Martin Mull, Dick Shawn, and Jennifer Tilly. It was the final film appearance of Shawn, who died in 1987. Plot Archie ...

'', ''

Too Much Sun ''Too Much Sun'' is a 1990 American comedy film directed by Robert Downey Sr. and starring Robert Downey Jr., Eric Idle, Andrea Martin, Allan Arbus, Ralph Macchio and Howard Duff. It was filmed in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, California, U ...

'', '' Hugo Pool''), as well as two acting appearances in movies where his father was also an actor (''

Johnny Be Good ''Johnny Be Good'' is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Bud S. Smith, starring Anthony Michael Hall as the main character, Johnny Walker. The film also features Robert Downey Jr., Paul Gleason, Steve James, Jennifer Tilly and Uma Thurman ...

'', '' Hail Caesar'').

Personal life and death

Downey was married three times. His first marriage was to actress Elsie Ann Ford (1934–2014) in 1962, with whom he had two children: actress-writer Allyson (born 1963) and actor Robert Jr. (born 1965). The marriage ended in divorce in 1975. His second marriage, to actress-writer Laura Ernst, lasted until her death on January 27, 1994, from

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...

. In 1998 he married his third wife, Rosemary Rogers, humorist and co-author of ''Saints Preserve Us!'' and other books. They lived in New York City. Downey died of complications from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms beco ...

in his sleep at his home in Manhattan, on July 7, 2021, thirteen days after his 85th birthday.

Legacy

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

released five of his films (the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

inductee ''Putney Swope'', ''Babo 73'', ''Chafed Elbows'', ''No More Excuses'' and ''Taos Tonight'') as part of the Eclipse Series. A 2022 documentary film simply called ''"Sr."'' was made by Chris Smith of ''

American Movie ''American Movie'' is a 1999 American documentary film directed by Chris Smith, produced by Smith and Sarah Price, and edited by Jun Diaz and Barry Poltermann. The film chronicles the making of ''Coven'', an independent short horror film dire ...

'' fame and was produced by his son. It won the

National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary Feature The National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary Feature is one of the annual awards given (since 1940) to the producer of the film by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Notes *≠ Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature no ...

.Top Gun: Maverick Named Best Movie of 2022 by National Board of Review - The Hollywood Reporter
/ref>

Filmography

References

External links

*
Eclipse Series 33: Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr. on The Criterion Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Downey, Robert, Sr. 1936 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American male film actors American male television actors American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American people of Irish descent American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent American Ashkenazi Jews Neurological disease deaths in New York (state) Deaths from Parkinson's disease Film directors from New York City Jewish American male actors Male actors from New York (state) Military personnel from New York City People from Manhattan People from Rockville Centre, New York United States Army soldiers 21st-century American Jews