Robert Downey Jr is one of the biggest and best actors in Hollywood these days and he’s certainly led an interesting life getting to that point.
He’s a prime example of never giving up on dreams, getting knocked down and knocked back only to get your life together and fight harder to achieve dreams. He’s faced time in jail, suffered addiction and been a Hollywood outcast, only to come back stronger.
If you’re ever looking for inspiration and the fact addiction help is available if you need it, in which you should 100% take it, it’s this man. Had he not, his life would be very very different right now. And, what’s more, we wouldn’t have gotten to enjoy so many of his movies.
But what are the best Robert Downey Jr films of all time?
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Released in 2005, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a movie based upon a novel of the same name and he plays a thief posing as an actor who is required to research a role as a detective. He joins Gay Perry, played by Val Kilmer, on a rather messy murder case and it’s full of twists, turns and even plenty of comedy too. Downey Jr often describes it as his best work, and who are we to argue?
Zodiac
Zodiac came two years later and is an entirely different role to that of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. While it’s a crime thriller and involves solving a series of rather grim crimes in the late 1960s and into the 70s, it’s a fantastic movie in which Downey Jr plays a crime reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Also starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo, the movie is a real masterpiece and has a real authenticity to it.
Chaplin
In 1992, Robert Downey Jr was at the peak of his powers before it all came crashing down on him and one of his best roles was as Charlie Chaplin in the movie Chaplin. Directed by Richard Attenborough, the dramatisation of the comic star’s life is a fantastic movie and Downey Jr really does the great Charlie Chaplin justice.
Sherlock Holmes
We love Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes books and Robert Downey Jr really is marvellous playing the great Holmes. His relationship with Dr Watson, played by Jude Law really is fantastic and there are few that have played Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous character quite like Downey Jr has.
Tropic Thunder
We see a different side to Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder, and it’s in fact a hilarious one. It’s one of his more controversial performances, as he’s playing a white, Australian thespian playing a black man in a Vietnam War biopic, but it’s a clever commentary on how far some actors are willing to go in the real world.
Such was his performance, he even received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor!
