You'd be forgiven for once having thought Robert Downey Jr's career as anything other than a jailbird was well and truly over. Despite status as a rising star and a Best Actor Oscar nom for Chaplin in 1993, Downey Jr's well-publicised drug addiction saw him arrested numerous times and fired from a series of productions throughout the 90s and early-00s. The story goes that, even after Downey Jr. got clean, Woody Allen couldn't get either Downey Jr. or fellow rascal Winona Ryder insured to work on his 2005 film Melinda and Melinda. Cut to today, and Robert Downey Jr is the highest paid actor in Hollywood (he made $75 million between June 2012 and June 2013 alone). A string of diverse performances in some contemporary greats, including Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Good Night, and Good Luck and Zodiac led to more high profile roles and Downey Jr's eventual coronation as the modern-day king of the movie franchise. He's Iron Man, he's Sherlock Holmes, he's Kirk Lazarus and you probably know at least one person who thinks he's the coolest person on the Earth. And they'd be right.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
