Robert Downey Jr. was one of the most exciting young prospects in Hollywood in the early 1990s. He appeared in Robert Altman's incredible Short Cuts, the successful Soapdish and the controversial Natural Born Killers. His role as Charlie Chaplin in, erm, Chaplin earned him a nomination for Best Actor at the 1992 Academy Awards. The Downfall: Downey was arrested on numerous occasions on drug-related charged between 1996-2001. The charges included possession of marijuana, cocaine and heroin. These all-too-frequent under-the-infliuence incidents landed Downey in jail and rehab and cost him his role on the hit TV series Ally McBeal. Whenever Downey had completed a sting in rehab and it was thought that he was on the up, he would relapse. Things got so bad that Woody Allen couldn't get Downey and the similarly troubled Winona Ryder insured for his 2005 film Melinda And Melinda. People wanted to work with Downey, but he was too much of a liability. What Brought Him Back: Downey was faced with a simple choice in 2001: either go to jail or go to rehab. Realising he needed to clean up his act, Downey chose rehab. He returned to mainstream films in the mid-2000s with roles in Gothika and Zodiac, as well as appearing in a number of semi-independent films. Obviously, Downey's biggest success was his performance as Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies. Downey was far from the most obvious choice for the role but he knocked it out of the park and completely made it his own. Not only were critics impressed with his performance, but by appearing in the blockbusters Downey seriously padded his bank account, becoming the top earning actor of 2013-14 with wages of $75m. Did It Last?: Downey continues to go from strength to strength and Avengers: Age Of Ultron, which sees him reprising his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man and should become one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Which other actors came back against all the odds? Share your favourite redemption stories down in the comments.
