Robert Downey Sr.
American filmmaker and actor (1936-2021) · United States · Directors · Died at 85
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Something wrong?The man who made Putney Swope - a scorched-earth satire of Madison Avenue that became an underground touchstone - and taught his son what irreverence looked like before Hollywood got hold of him.
A life in dates
Finding Your RootsSeries2011
Tower HeistFilm, Judge Ramos2005
Rittenhouse SquareFilm, Director1999
MagnoliaFilm, WDKK Show Director1996
The SunchaserFilm, Telephone Voices1993
Tales of the CitySeries, Edgar's Doctor
The Last PartyFilm, 19931986
MatlockSeries, Judge Warren Anderson
AmericaFilm, 1986Director, Writer1985
The Twilight ZoneSeries, Director1981Energy and How to Get ItFilm1975
Saturday Night LiveSeries
Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos TonightFilm, 1975Director, Writer1971Is There Sex After Death?Film, Himself1969
Naughty NurseFilm, Desk Clerk1968
The Dick Cavett ShowSeries1965
Sweet Smell of SexFilm, Director1962
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny CarsonSeries1961
Balls BluffFilm, Director, Writer1936Born24 June 1936Also in Deutsch
Photos 1
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Filmography 40
SR"Sr."
SRSearching for Mr. Rugoff
DFDon't Blink - Robert Frank
PAPablo
RURadio UnnameableTHTower Heist
ECElectile Dysfunction: Inside the Business of American CampaignsRSRittenhouse Square
FWFrom Other Worlds
AGA Touch Of Greatness
TMThe Family ManMAMagnolia
BNBoogie Nights
HPHugo PoolTSThe Sunchaser
HCHail CaesarTPThe Last Party
TSToo Much Sun
JGJohnny Be Good
MTMoving Target
RLRented LipsAMAmerica
TATo Live and Die in L.A.
UAUp the Academy
TMThe Gong Show MovieTTTwo Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight
SBSticks and Bones
GPGreaser's Palace
YBYou've Got To Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat
POPound
PSPutney SwopeNNNaughty Nurse
NENo More Excuses
CEChafed ElbowsSSSweet Smell of Sex
BABabo 73BBBalls Bluff81 credits on file
Television 7
FRFinding Your RootsTCTales of the CityMAMatlockTZThe Twilight ZoneSLSaturday Night LiveTSThe Dick Cavett ShowTCThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny CarsonAwards
Family
Robert Downey Sr.Partners
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Robert John Downey Sr. was born Robert Elias Jr. on June 24, 1936, and spent the 1960s making what one scholar called "strictly take-no-prisoners affairs" - shoestring countercultural films that shoved against every polite boundary. In 1969 he released Putney Swope, a caustic takedown of the New York advertising world that became his signature. Three years later came Greaser's Palace, a surrealist Western that confirmed his taste for the absurd. The minimal budgets and outrageous satire defined an era's fringe, and the filmmaker raised a son who would carry some of that defiance into a very different kind of fame. He died on July 7, 2021.
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