At the age of 85, father of the Hollywood actor Robert Downeydied while sleeping, at his home in New York.
The ‘Iron-Man’ wrote on his Instagram post on Tuesday, inwhich he disclosed that his father had Parkinson’s disease for more than 5years.
"He was a true maverick filmmaker and remainedremarkably optimistic throughout. According to my stepmom's calculations, theywere happily married for just over 2000 years," is what the caption of hispost reads.
The filmmaker, Robert Elias Jr was born on June 24, 1936in New York City and later changed his name in the honor of his stepfather JamesDowney.
As a teenager, he joined the US Army and used hisstepfather Jim Downey’s surname and lied about his age to get enlisted as anunderage teenager.
Downey claimed that most of his time was spent in thestockade and he used it to write a novel.
In semi-pro baseball, he pitched and tried playwriting. Henever owned a college degree or attended any film school. He just experimentedby picking up a camera and started making films.
After finishing his service, he stayed in GreenwichVillage with his sister, where he discovered his interest in the undergroundfilm.
The first step which he took while beginning his career waswith a short movie which he directed and wrote on his own in 1961 known as Ball'sBluff.
Adding on to his film career he then released the moviewith offbeat Indies like Babo 73 in 1964, Chafed Elbows in 1966 andNo More Excuses in 1968.
But all these efforts lead him nowhere, but the moviePutney Swope in 1969 brought him recognition. The movie was set in the world ofadvertisement. It starred Arnold Johnson as a Black advertising executive who setup his firm after winning a board election that no one expected him to win.
This film received so much fame because of the matterraised in the movie of race in Hollywood movies, the white power structure, andthe nature of corporate corruption.
He also worked with actor Allan Arbus in the movie acidwestern Greaser’s Palace in 1972. Some of His other achievements included 1973’sTV film Sticks and Bones, Up the Academy in 1980, and episodes of TVseries, including The Twilight Zone reboot.
To Live and Die in L.A. and Magnolia are someof the movies in which the filmmaker appeared as an actor too.
He married thrice, first with actor Elsie Anne Downey,then they gave birth to two children and got divorced later on. His second wifewho was actor Laura Ernst died. After which he married the best-selling author,Rosemary Rogers.