Robert Downey, Sr.

Infobox actor
name = Robert John Downey, Sr.

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imagesize = 180px
caption =
birthname = Robert John Elias, Jr.
birthdate = 1937 age {71}
birthplace =
othername =
occupation = Director, actor, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer
spouse = Elsie Downey (div.1975)
Laura Ernst (1991-1994)
Rosemary Rogers (1998-present)
yearsactive = 1950s-present
homepage =

Robert John Downey, Sr. (born Robert John Elias, Jr. in 1937) is an American actor, writer and film director. He is known as the director and writer of the cult classic feature film "Putney Swope", a biting satire on the New York Madison Avenue advertising world.

Biography

Personal life

Downey is of half Irish and half Jewish descent. [cite news | author=Daisy Fried | title=Senior Class | url=http://www.citypaper.net/articles/042497/article017.shtml | work=Philadelphia City Paper | date=1 May 1997 | accessdate=2008-06-17] [cite news | author=Jamie Diamond | title=Robert Downey Jr. Is Chaplin (on Screen) and a Child (Off) | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DB1039F933A15751C1A964958260 | work=The New York Times | date= | accessdate=2008-06-17] Downey is the father of actor Robert Downey Jr. and actress-writer Allyson Downey, both children from his first marriage to actress Elsie Downey. They were divorced in 1975. Downey Sr.'s second marriage, to the actress-writer Laura Ernst, ended with her 1994 death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He currently lives in New York City with his wife, Rosemary Rogers, whom he married in 1998.

Career

By the age of 22, Downey had served in the Army, played minor league baseball, become a Golden Gloves champion and an Off-Off-Broadway playwright. In 1961, working with the film editor Fred von Bernewitz, he began writing and directing low-budget 16mm films which gained an underground following, beginning with "Ball's Bluff" (1961), a fantasy short about a Civil War soldier who awakens in Central Park in 1961.

He moved into big-budget filmmaking with the surrealistic "Greaser's Palace" (1972). [cite news | author=Vincent Canby| title=Review: Greaser's Palace | url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?title1=&title2=Greaser%27s%20Palace%20%28Movie%29&reviewer=VINCENT%20CANBY&pdate=19720801 | work=The New York Times | date= | accessdate=2008-06-17] His most recent film was "Rittenhouse Square" (2005), a documentary capturing life in a Philadelphia park.

Filmography

* "Balls Bluff" (1961) (short film)
* "A Touch of Greatness" (1964)
* "Babo 73" (1964)
* "Sweet Smell of Sex" (1965)
* "Chafed Elbows" (1966)
* "No More Excuses" (1968)
* "Putney Swope" (1969)
* "Pound" (1970)
* "Greaser's Palace" (1972)
* "Sticks and Bones" (1973)
* "Moment to Moment" (1975)
* "Up the Academy" (1980)
* "America" (1986)
* "Rented Lips" (1988)
* "Too Much Sun" (1991)
* "Hugo Pool" (1997)
* "Rittenhouse Square" (2005)

References

External links

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