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How Did Robert Downey Influence America

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Born in New York City on April 4, Robert Downey Jr. began acting as a young child. He made his first film appearances and was a cast member on Saturday Night Live in the 1980s, but his growing success was marred by years of struggles with drug abuse. Eventually turning his life around, he earned a resurgence of critical and popular acclaim, and is considered one of Hollywood’s A-list actors. Admittedly, Robert has had his bad moments but he has still made positive influences in America. Downey was raised in an artistic household in New York City’s Greenwich Village; his father was a noted underground filmmaker who gave the five-year-old Downey his first part. After dropping out of high school in California, Downey returned to New York City to pursue an acting career. Supporting roles in several movies, including the hit Weird Science, led to a stint on the television comedy skit show Saturday Night Live. With his boyish looks and raffish charm, Downey then scored the lead in the romantic comedy The Pick-up Artist and broke out further with his visceral performance as a cocaine addict in Less Than Zero.
Downey made his earliest feature film appearances in films such as Baby, It’s You, Firstborn, Weird Science, and Back to School. From 1985 to 1986, he was a regular cast member of Saturday Night Live, NBC’s popular sketch-comedy …show more content…

The influence of his habits is unquestionable, from the way his real-life struggle with substance abuse mirrored his character Julian’s rapid deterioration in Less Than Zero to the winking acknowledgement of his past problems in more recent roles like hard-living hero Tony Stark in the Iron Man franchise and literally cocaine icon Sherlock Holmes. Downey has been showered with critical accolades, award nominations and big paychecks on both sides of

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