I wrote the script with my wife Laura who died of ALS at age 36. I wonder if they'll freak out.'" -Robert Downey Jr in Us, October 1996.ĭowney describes "Hugo Pool" as "the right kind of strange. He had to be ballsy to go out and say, 'No one's ever seen anything like this before. "My father was and still is my role model. Initially the wunderkind son of cult filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. babbling jerk, but if I knew then what I know now. ![]() I can't believe how we thought it was OK. I wouldn't do anything differently, except I wouldn't allow anyone to smoke marijuana. If Robert wanted to be wild, it was OK with me. ![]() Like his son, Robert Downey Sr battled drug addiction, describing it as "a horrible f-ing nightmare. ![]() His son Robert Downey Jr appeared in "Hugo Pool," the seventh of his father's films in which he has acted. He returned with "Hugo Pool" (1997), co-written with his late wife Laura, about a dedicated, beautiful and lonely Beverly Hills pool cleaner (Alyssa Milano) who becomes involved in the lives of her clients, particularly Floyd, an attractive man afflicted with ALS (the same disease that had felled Laura Downey). Downey wrote and directed "Too Much Sun" (1991), a weak farce about a competition between a brother and sister (both gay) to have a child first, so as to inherit a fortune from their father. Though his acting appearances have been few, he did play an ad agency head in "You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat" (1971), an NCAA investigator in "Johnny Be Good" (1988) and a recording studio manager in "Boogie Nights" (1997). With Chuck Barris, Downey co-wrote "The Gong Show Movie" (1980) and also directed "Rented Lips" (1988), scripted and produced by Martin Mull. A super-offbeat Jesus Christ parody with a Western setting, it offers some wonderful performances by Allan Arbus as a zoot-suited Jesus, Albert Henderson as head Greaser and Stan Gottlieb as the "wife" of a deformed Mexican with a lecherous yen for the Saviour, but despite the inspired hilarity, its 91 minute running time seems longer than that. And that would be his love for his father, Robert Downey Sr., the renowned. Though his greatest success, "Putney Swope" appears dated today, and the richer-looking (Downey finally had some money to spend) "Greaser's Palace" (1972) may have withstood the test of time. (now on Netflix) lets us see inside Robert Downey Jr.’s home and a little bit of what’s inside his heart. Downey had worked in advertising and lampooned that business in the movie everyone associates with him, "Putney Swope" (1969), about the hilarious changes made by a token black member of an ad agency after he is accidentally elected Chairman of the Board. died during the making of the documentary in his sleep at home in Manhattan on July 7, 2021, 13 days after his 85th birthday.Described by an associate as "a big jovial bear," Robert Downey Sr translated his irreverent, mordant humor to the screen as the writer-director of several experimental cult classics of the late 1960s and early 70s. I’m just happy here.”Īfter a battle with Parkinson’s disease, Downey Sr. It was an idiot move on our parts to share that with our children. “A lot of us thought it would be hypocritical to not have our kids participate in marijuana and stuff like that. ![]() As noted by The Guardian, during an interview clip from the ’90s, Downey Sr. When my dad and I would do drugs together, it was like him trying to express his love for me in the only way he knew how.”ĭowney Jr.’s spiral into cocaine and heroin addiction in the 1990s becomes a prickly part of the Netflix documentary, as the question is raised over whether his father’s wild lifestyle was partly to blame. said: “There was always a lot of pot and coke around. has claimed his father introduced him to drugs before he was a teenager. was thrice married, the first time to the former Elsie Ann Ford from 1962-82, the second time to Laura Ernst from 1991-94. He went on to star in seven other films directed by his father, including Greaser’s Palace, Moment To Moment, Up The Academy, America, Rented Lips, Too Much Sun and Hugo Pool.ĭowney Jr. had his acting debut in 1970’s Pound at the age of five. His first wife, actor Elsie Ann Ford, starred in four of his films, including Chafed Elbows, Pound, Greaser’s Palace and Moment To Moment. His films were also noted for starring various members of his family. also starred as an actor in various films, including an appearance in 1997’s Boogie Nights by Paul Thomas Anderson.
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