ISO basic Latin alphabet
Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd
Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh
Ii	Jj	Kk	Ll
Mm	Nn	Oo	Pp
Qq	Rr	Ss	Tt
Uu	Vv	Ww	Xx
Yy	Zz

B (named bee /ˈbiː/)^[1] is the second letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is used to represent a variety of bilabial sounds (depending on language), most commonly a voiced bilabial plosive.

History[link]

⟨B⟩ may have started as a pictogram of the floorplan of a house in Egyptian hieroglyphs. By 1050 BC, the Phoenician alphabet's letter had a linear form that served as the beth.

Egyptian hieroglyph cottage	Phoenician beth	Greek Beta	Etruscan B	Roman B

Typography[link]

The modern lowercase ⟨b⟩ derives from later Roman times, when scribes began omitting the upper loop of the capital.

Blackletter B	Uncial B
Modern Roman B	Modern Italic B	Modern Script B

Use[link]

In English, most other languages that use the Latin alphabet, and the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨b⟩ denotes the voiced bilabial plosive /b/, as in bib. In English it is sometimes silent; most instances are derived from old monosyllablic words with the b final and immediately preceded by an m, such as lamb and bomb; a few are examples of etymological spelling to make the word more like its Latin original, such as debt or doubt.

In Estonian, Icelandic, and Chinese pinyin, ⟨b⟩ does not denote a voiced consonant; instead, it represents a voiceless /p/ that contrasts with either a geminated /pp/ (in Estonian) or an aspirated /pʰ/ (in Chinese, Danish and Icelandic), represented by ⟨p⟩. In Fijian ⟨b⟩ represents a prenasalized /mb/, whereas in Zulu and Xhosa it represents an implosive /ɓ/, in contrast to the digraph ⟨bh⟩ which represents /b/.

Finnish only uses ⟨b⟩ in loanwords.

⟨B⟩ is also a musical note. Its value varies depending on the region; a ⟨b⟩ in Anglophone countries represents a note that is a semitone higher than the B note in Northern Continental Europe. (Anglophone B is represented in Northern Europe with ⟨H⟩.) Archaic forms of ⟨b⟩, the b quadratum (square b, ♮) and b rotundum (round b, ♭) remain in use for musical notation as the symbols for natural and flat, respectively.

In Contracted (grade 2) English braille, ⟨b⟩ stands for "but" when in isolation.

Related letters and other similar characters[link]

• Β β : Greek letter Beta
• В в : Cyrillic letter Ve
• Б б : Cyrillic letter Be
• Ɓ ɓ : Latin letter B with hook
• Ъ ъ : Cyrillic letter Yer (also known as the hard sign, back yer, or tvyordiy znak) is shaped like the letter b, but has no phonetic value on its own in modern East Slavic languages. The ъ serves as an orthographic device that indicates that the consonant preceding the ъ is not palatalized.
• Ь ь : Cyrillic letter Soft sign (also known as the front yer, or myagkiy znak) is also shaped like the letter b, but has no phonetic value on its own in modern East Slavic languages. The ь serves as orthographic device that indicates that the consonant preceding the ь is softened or palatalized.
• ẞ ß : German letter Eszett, originally a ligature of long s ⟨ſ⟩ with ⟨z⟩, now considered to stand for ⟨ss⟩.
• ב : Hebrew letter Bet
• ␢ : Space

Computing codes[link]

¹ and all encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other representations[link]

NATO phonetic	Morse code
Bravo	–···

Signal flag	Flag semaphore	Braille

References[link]

External links[link]

• Media related to B at Wikimedia Commons
• The Wiktionary entry for B
• The Wiktionary entry for b

Cher Lloyd
Lloyd performing in April 2011
Background information
Birth name	Cher Lloyd
Born	(1993-07-28) 28 July 1993 (age 18) Malvern, Worcestershire, UK
Origin	Malvern, Worcestershire, UK
Genres	R&B,pop, dance-pop, hip hop, synthpop, rap, dubstep
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, model,
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2010–present
Labels	Syco, Epic Records
Website	cherlloyd.com

Cher Lloyd (born 28 July 1993) is an English recording artist. Lloyd rose to fame when she finished fourth in the seventh series of The X Factor. Shortly afterwards, Lloyd was signed by Simon Cowell to Sony Music subsidiary Syco Music.

Cher Lloyd's debut single "Swagger Jagger" was released in June 2011. Despite receiving negative reviews, the single entered at number one on the UK Singles Chart and number two on the Irish Singles Chart. Her second single "With Ur Love" was released on 31 October, featuring Mike Posner, and peaked at number four in the UK, and number five in Ireland, preceding her debut album Sticks + Stones, which peaked at number four in the UK Albums Chart and number seven on the Irish Albums Chart.^[1]

Life and career[link]

Early life[link]

Cher Lloyd used to live in Malvern with her parents Darren and Dina, and three younger siblings brother Josh, and sisters Sophie and Rosie. Lloyd attended Dyson Perrins CE Sports College, where she studied performing arts.^[2] She also attended theatre arts school Stagecoach.

[edit] 2010: The X Factor

During her time on the show she was mentored by Cheryl Cole (pictured).

Lloyd had previously auditioned for The X Factor twice before (when the minimum age was lower) singing ballads, but did not make it through.^[3] Lloyd has previously performed at holiday camps and said she gets a mixed reaction to her music, but was a big hit with x-factor judge at the time Cheryl Cole. She remarked on their similarity and Cheryl went on to support her throughout the show.^[4] She auditioned singing the Keri Hilson version of "Turn My Swag On".^[4] At bootcamp she sang a rap version of "Viva La Vida"^[5] adding lyrics she claimed to have written herself, but this was disputed and reports claimed she took them from a song by rapper Swizz Beatz.^[6][7] At the judges' houses she performed "Cooler Than Me"^[8] but suffered from tonsillitis and was unable to complete her song.^[9] She was given a second chance, but broke down sobbing and could not complete the song. Despite this, she was still picked as one of the final three girls by mentor Cheryl Cole.

Lloyd sang a rendition of "Just Be Good to Me" in the first of the live shows. In the second live show she sang "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)". In the third live show, she sang a mashup of "No Diggity" and "Shout", and in the fourth live show she sang "Stay". This was the first time Lloyd did not rap in her performance, and Cowell even called it "the performance of the season". In week five, Lloyd sang "Empire State of Mind", but judges stated that after last week they were disappointed, and Cowell said it was copycat. However, the judges agreed that she redeemed herself with her rendition of "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" mixed with "Mockingbird", by Elton John and Eminem respectively, in week 6. In the seventh week, Lloyd was in the bottom two for the first time after her rendition of "Imagine", but Cowell, Cole and Walsh all saved her in the final showdown, resulting in Paije Richardson being eliminated. In the following week Lloyd performed "Girlfriend", followed by "Walk This Way". Both performances were credited by the judges and she was saved by the public vote the following night, securing her position in the semi final.^[10] In the semi-final, Lloyd performed "Nothin' on You" and "Love the Way You Lie" and was in the bottom two with Mary Byrne. She was saved by the judges again and put through to the final, even though voting statistics after the show revealed that Lloyd had the fewest votes.^[11] In the final she performed a mash-up of "The Clapping Song" and "Get Ur Freak On", followed by a duet with will.i.am, which was a mashup of "Where Is the Love?" and "I Gotta Feeling". Lloyd was then eliminated in fourth place, having received the fewest public votes.^[12]

[edit] 2011–12: Sticks + Stones, touring, and other ventures

Lloyd performing on the X Factor Live Tour, April 2011, the tour saw Lloyd performing for 500,000 people throughout the UK.^[13]

After the final it was announced that Lloyd had been signed by Syco Music.^[14] Lloyd and nine other contestants from the series participated in the X Factor Live Tour from February 2011 to April 2011. The tour saw Lloyd performing for 500,000 people throughout the UK.^[15] Songwriter Autumn Rowe^[16] and producer RedOne^[17] worked on her debut album, scheduled for release in November 2011.^[18] Her debut single, "Swagger Jagger", received its first airplay on 20 June 2011 after it had been leaked onto the internet on 15 June 2011^[19] however, this version was later confirmed as only the demo of the track on Lloyd's Twitter account.^[20] The single was released on 31 July 2011^[21] and peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 7 August 2011.

On 28 July 2011, Lloyd previewed five tracks from her upcoming album during a Ustream session, including tracks featuring Busta Rhymes, Mike Posner, Ghetts, Mic Righteous and Dot Rotten.^[22] Lloyd confirmed on Twitter that "With Ur Love" featuring Mike Posner was to be released has her second single. The single was released on 30 October 2011. The single received its first radio airplay on 21 September 2011. The music video premiered on 1 October 2011, on morning show T4. The single sold 74,030 copies in its first week becoming the highest-selling number four single since Rihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)", which sold 74,248 copies in October 2010.^[23] Lloyd confirmed the album's title "Sticks + Stones" on her twitter. The album was released on 7 November 2011.^[24] The album peaked at number four and has sold 198,199 copies in the United Kingdom as of January 2012.^[25]

On 21 November 2011, Lloyd announced her debut headlining UK tour, the Sticks + Stones Tour, set for March and April 2012.^[26] In December 2011, two more dates were added due to popular demand for tickets.^[27] "Sticks + Stones" will be released in 2012 through Epic Records in the United States^[28] On 13 December, a music video for "Dub on the Track" featuring underground artists Mic Righteous, Dot Rotten and Ghetts, who also all appear in the accompanying video, premiered on SBTV.^[29][30] The song will not serve as the third single.^[31]

December 2011, Cher Lloyd signed a record deal with L.A. Reid to Epic Records in the United States. She is expected to release her debut album in the United States in late 2012.^[28]

"Want U Back" was confirmed^[32] as the third single from the album. The single version features vocals from American rapper Astro and was released 19 February 2012.^[33] Following the release of the music video on 6 January 2012, the single peaked at number twenty-six on the UK Singles Chart, due to digital downloads from the album.^[34] Cher confirmed via her official website that "Beautiful People" is the fourth single from the album, but there is no official release date.^[35]

In February 2012, Lloyd spoke out to BBC Radio on her consistent cyber-bullying and how she fears for her safety after becoming a victim of online bullying. "I'm public property and there's nothing I can do — I have got to deal with it." She continued: "The message that I have got for people is: I have always tried to act the hard person and that was just a front for me. It is about time now that I let people realise that I am a real person and if I can do it, with all these people that want a piece of me, then other victims can speak out as well. There have been many times when I have cried myself to sleep. I am very scared because I like to think people think I'm strong, because if they don't, then they might not think I can do it."^[36] Lloyd also spoke to Newsbeat on how she thinks the government should take more action in preventing cyber-bullying.^[37] On 24 February 2012, it was announced that Cher Lloyd has signed a modelling contract with Select. Select's special bookings revently stated:

Her strong individuality represents everything that we love about the youth today and their music. Like everyone, she is a melting pot of different emotions, from super confidence oozing fun to a vulnerability

Lloyd has previously appeared on the cover of RWD Magazine and modelled for fashion bible Wonderland.^[38]

2012–present: Marriage and second studio album[link]

On 10 April 2012, Cher Lloyd announced she has started work on her second album, and has done a few songs.^[39] Lloyd plans to re-release her single Want U Back in the US without Astro, but has recorded a remix with Snoop Dogg.^[40] L.A. Reid also plans to introduce Lloyd to American media in New York, hoping Lloyd will make a breakthrough in America.^[41] Cher Lloyd has recently confirmed her engagement to boyfriend Craig, and hopes to get married as soon as possible.^[42][43][44] However, Lloyd has received controversy due to marriage at a young age, but has argued her "Gypsy background means she should have already married by now". She hopes to get married sometime in the summer of 2012.^[45]

Discography[link]

• Sticks + Stones (2011)

Tours[link]

• 2011: The X Factor Live Tour 2011
• 2012: Sticks + Stones Tour

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

See also[link]

• List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Cher Lloyd discography at MusicBrainz

Sarah Kay is a professor of French at New York University.

Kay was a student in the UK at the University of Oxford. She started her teaching career at the University of Liverpool then moved to the University of Cambridge. She was head of department at Cambridge from 1996 until 2001 and Director of Studies at Girton College, Cambridge from 2003 to 2005. Kay has been a fellow of the British Academy since 2004 and was awarded a D.Litt (Cambridge) in 2005.^[1]

Publications[link]

• Žižek: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge: Polity, 2003)
• (with Malcolm Bowie and Terence Cave) A Short History of French Literature (Oxford University Press, 2003)
• Courtly Contradictions (Stanford University Press, 2001)
• (with Simon Gaunt) The Troubadours. An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
• The Chansons de geste in the Age of Romance (Oxford University Press, 1995)
• (as co-editor with Miri Rubin) Framing Medieval Bodies (Manchester University Press, 1994)
• (as editor) Raoul de Cambrai (Oxford University Press, 1992)
• Subjectivity in Troubadour Poetry (Cambridge University Press, 1990)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kay's profile at Princeton University
• Review of Kay's Courtly Contradictions published in The Medieval Review, 2004.

This biography article of a United Kingdom academic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Robert Downey, Jr.
Downey at the 83rd Academy Awards in 2011
Born	Robert John Downey Jr. (1965-04-04) April 4, 1965 (age 47) New York, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, producer, screenwriter, singer, songwriter
Years active	1970–present
Height	5' 8 1/2" (1.74 m)
Spouse	Deborah Falconer (1992–2004) Susan Downey (2005-Present)
Children	Indio Downey (son-1993), with Deborah Falconer Exton Elias Downey (son-2012), with Susan Downey
Parents	Robert Downey, Sr. Elsie Downey (née Ford)

Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor who made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five, appearing in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s, he had roles in series such as coming of age films associated with the Brat Pack. His role in Less Than Zero (1987) was the first time Downey's acting would be commended by critics. After Zero, Downey was cast in starring roles in bigger films, such as Air America (1990), Soapdish (1991), and Natural Born Killers (1994). He played Charlie Chaplin in the 1992 film Chaplin, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Between 1996 and 2001, Downey was frequently arrested on drug-related charges. After being released from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in 2000, Downey joined the cast of the hit television series Ally McBeal playing the new love interest of Calista Flockhart's title character. His performance was praised and received accolades, but his character was written out when Downey was fired after two drug arrests in late 2000 and early 2001. After one last stay in a court-ordered drug treatment program, Downey finally achieved lasting sobriety and his career began to take off again. He appeared in semi-independent films such as The Singing Detective (2003), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), and A Scanner Darkly (2006). He also had supporting roles in the mainstream films Gothika (2003) and Zodiac (2007). In 2004, Downey released his debut studio album The Futurist.

In 2008, Downey was cast as the title character in the comic book adaptation Iron Man. The film was a huge success, and its opening weekend is still in the top 25 openings of all time.^[1] He reprised the role of Tony Stark in the 2010 sequel, Iron Man 2, again in 2012 in The Avengers, and in the third film of the planned trilogy, Iron Man 3, due to open in 2013.^[2] Downey's other 2008 films included Charlie Bartlett and the Ben Stiller-directed Tropic Thunder, the latter of which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2009, Downey starred as fictional British detective Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes and its follow-up Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, released Christmas 2009 and late December 2011, respectively. Soon after Sherlock Holmes, Downey won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for that portrayal of the famous detective.^[3]

Early life and family[link]

Downey was born in Manhattan, New York, the younger of two children.^[4] His father, Robert Downey, Sr., is an actor, writer, producer, cinematographer, and director of underground films, and his mother, Elsie (née Ford), is also an actress and appeared in Downey Sr.'s films. His father is of half Russian Jewish and half Irish Catholic ancestry, and his mother is of Scottish, German, and Swiss descent.^[4][5][6] His father was born "Robert Elias" but changed his last name to "Downey" (after his stepfather James Downey) when he was a minor and wanted to enlist in the Army.^[5][7] He and his older sister, Allyson, grew up in Greenwich Village.^[8]

As a child, Downey was "surrounded by drugs".^[8] His father, a drug addict, allowed Downey to use marijuana at age six, an incident which his father has said that he now regrets.^[8] Downey stated that drug use became an emotional bond between him and his father: "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."^[9] Eventually, Downey began spending every night abusing alcohol and "making a thousand phone calls in pursuit of drugs".^[9]

During his childhood Downey had minor roles in his father's projects. He made his acting debut at the age of five, playing a sick puppy in the absurdist comedy Pound (1970), and then at age seven appeared in the surrealist Greaser's Palace (1972).^[5] At the age of ten, he was living in England and studied classical ballet as part of a larger curriculum.^[10] He attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York as a teenager. When his parents divorced in 1978, Downey moved to California with his father, but in 1982 he dropped out of Santa Monica High School and moved back to New York to pursue an acting career full-time.^[11]

Career[link]

Beginnings and critical acclaim[link]

Downey began building upon theater roles, including the short-lived off-Broadway musical "American Passion" at the Joyce Theater in 1983, produced by Norman Lear. In 1985, at age 20, Downey joined the cast of the weekly television comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL), but was fired in 1986 following a cast overhaul that was done in order to save the show from cancellation due to low Nielsen ratings and critics panning the show for its mediocre cast at the time.^[11] In 1985, Downey had his breakthrough when he played James Spader's sidekick in Tuff Turf and then a bully in John Hughes' Weird Science. He was considered for the role of Duckie in John Hughes' film Pretty in Pink (1986),^[12][13] but his first lead role would be with Molly Ringwald in The Pick-up Artist (1987). Because of these and other coming-of-age films Downey did during the 1980s, he is sometimes named as a member of the Brat Pack.^[11][14]

In 1987, Downey played Julian Wells, a drug-addicted rich boy whose life rapidly spirals out of his control, in the film version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero. His performance, described by Janet Maslin in The New York Times as "desperately moving",^[15] was widely praised, though Downey has said that for him "the role was like the ghost of Christmas Future" since his drug habit resulted in his becoming an "exaggeration of the character" in real life.^[16] Zero drove Downey into films with bigger budgets and names, such as Chances Are (1989) with Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O'Neal, Air America (1990) with Mel Gibson, and Soapdish (1991) with Sally Field, Kevin Kline and Whoopi Goldberg.

In 1992, he starred as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, a role for which he prepared extensively, learning how to play the violin and tennis left-handed. He even had a personal coach in order to imitate Chaplin's posture and way of carrying himself.^[17] The role garnered Downey an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor at the Academy Awards 65th ceremony, losing to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.^[18] His other films in the 1990s included Heart and Souls, Only You, Natural Born Killers, Restoration, Two Girls and a Guy, Black and White, Short Cuts, Richard III, and The Last Party, a documentary written by Downey.

Career troubles[link]

Downey, Jr. at the premiere of Air America, 1990

From 1996 through 2001, Downey was arrested numerous times on drug-related charges including cocaine, heroin and marijuana^[19] and went several times through drug treatment programs unsuccessfully, explaining in 1999 to a judge: "It's like I've got a shotgun in my mouth with my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal."^[20] He explained his relapses by claiming to have been addicted to drugs since the age of eight, due to the fact that^[20] his father, also an addict, had been giving them to him.^[21]

In April 1996, Downey was arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine and an unloaded .357 Magnum handgun while he was speeding down Sunset Boulevard. A month later, while on parole, he trespassed into a neighbor's home while under the influence of a controlled substance and fell asleep in one of the beds.^[22][23] He was sentenced to three years of probation and required to undergo compulsory drug testing. In 1997, he missed one of the court-ordered drug tests and had to spend four months in the Los Angeles County jail.

After Downey missed another required drug test in 1999, he was arrested once more. Despite Downey's lawyer, John Stewart Holden, assembling for his client's 1999 defense the same team of lawyers that successfully defended O. J. Simpson during his criminal trial for murder,^[20] Downey was sentenced to a three-year prison term at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California (a.k.a. "Corcoran II"). At the time of the 1999 arrest, all of Downey's film projects had wrapped and were close to release, with the exception of In Dreams, which he was allowed to complete filming. He had also been hired for voicing "The Devil" on the NBC animated television series God, the Devil and Bob, but was fired when he failed to show up for rehearsals.^[24][25]

After spending nearly a year in California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, California, Downey, on condition of posting $5,000 bail, was unexpectedly freed when a judge ruled that his collective time in incarceration facilities (spawned from the initial 1996 arrests) had qualified him for early release.^[8] A week after his 2000 release, Downey joined the cast of the hit television series Ally McBeal, playing the new love interest of Calista Flockhart's title character.^[26] His performance was praised and the following year he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a mini-series or television film.^[27][28] He also appeared as a writer and singer on Vonda Shepard's Ally McBeal: For Once in My Life album, and he sang with Sting a duet of "Every Breath You Take" in an episode of the series. Despite the apparent success, Downey claims that his performance on the series was overrated and that, "It was my lowest point in terms of addictions. At that stage, I didn't give a fuck whether I ever acted again."^[16] In January 2001, Downey was scheduled to play the role of Hamlet in a Los Angeles stage production directed by Mel Gibson.^[29]

Before the end of his first season on Ally McBeal, over the Thanksgiving 2000 holiday, Downey was arrested when his room at Merv Griffin's Hotel and Givenchy Spa in Palm Springs, California was searched by the police, who were responding to an anonymous 911 call. Downey was under the influence of a controlled substance and in possession of cocaine and Valium.^[30][31] Despite the fact that, if convicted, he could face a prison sentence of up to four years and eight months, he signed on to appear in at least eight more Ally McBeal episodes.^[32]

In April 2001, while he was on parole, a Los Angeles police officer found him wandering barefoot in Culver City, just outside Los Angeles. He was arrested for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs, but was released a few hours later,^[33] even though tests showed he had cocaine in his system.^[34] After this last arrest, producer David E. Kelley and other Ally McBeal executives ordered last-minute re-writes and re-shoots and dismissed Downey from the show, despite the fact that Downey's character had resuscitated Ally McBeal's ratings.^[35] The Culver City arrest also cost him a role in the high-profile film America's Sweethearts,^[34] and the subsequent incarceration forced Mel Gibson to shut down his planned stage production of Hamlet as well. In July 2001, Downey pleaded no contest to the Palm Springs charges, avoiding jail time. Instead, he was sent into drug rehabilitation and put on a three-year probation, benefiting from the California Proposition 36, which had been passed the year before with the aim of helping non-violent drug offenders overcome their addictions instead of sending them to jail.^[8][36]

The book Conversations with Woody Allen reports that director Woody Allen wanted to cast Downey and Winona Ryder in his film Melinda and Melinda in 2005, but was unable to do so because he could not get insurance on them, stating, "We couldn't get bonded. The completion bonding companies would not bond the picture unless we could insure them. We were heartbroken because I had worked with Winona before [on Celebrity] and thought she was perfect for this and wanted to work with her again. And I had always wanted to work with Bob Downey and always thought he was a huge talent."^{[citation needed]}

In a December 18, 2000 article for People Magazine entitled "Bad to Worse", Downey's stepmother Rosemary told author Alex Tresnlowski that Downey had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder "a few years ago" and added that his bipolar disorder was "the reason he has a hard time staying sober. What hasn't been tried is medication and intensive psychotherapy."^[37] In the same article, Dr. Manijeh Nikakhtar, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and co-author of Addiction or Self-Medication: The Truth (ISBN 978-1883819576), says she received a letter from Downey in 1999, during his time at Corcoran II, asking for advice on his condition. She discovered that "no one had done a complete [psychiatric] evaluation [on him]...I asked him flat out if he thought he was bipolar, and he said, 'Oh yeah. There are times I spend a lot of money and I'm hyperactive, and there are other times I'm down.'"^[37] In an article for the March 2007 issue of Esquire, Downey told author Scott Raab that he wanted to address "this whole thing about the bipolar" after receiving a phone call from "the Bipolar Association" asking him about being bipolar. When Downey denied he had ever said he was bipolar, the caller quoted the People article, to which Downey replied, "'No! Dr. Malibusian said [I said I was bipolar]...', and they go, 'Well, it's been written, so we're going to quote it.'"^[38] Downey flatly denied being "depressed or manic" and that previous attempts to diagnose him with any kind of psychiatric or mood disorder have always been skewed because "the guy I was seeing didn't know I was smokin' crack in his bathroom. You can't make a diagnosis until somebody's sober."^[38]

Career comeback[link]

After five years of substance abuse, arrests, rehab, and relapse, Robert Downey Jr. was finally ready to work toward a full recovery from drugs and a return to his career. In discussing his failed attempts to control his own addictive behavior in the past, Downey told Oprah Winfrey in November 2004 that "when someone says, 'I really wonder if maybe I should go to rehab?' Well, uh, you're a wreck, you just lost your job, and your wife left you. Uh, you might want to give it a shot."^[39] He added that after his last arrest in April 2001, when he knew he would likely be facing another stint in prison or another form of incarceration such as court-ordered rehab, "I finally said, 'You know what? I don't think I can continue doing this.' And I reached out for help, and I ran with it.... You can reach out for help in kind of a half-assed way and you'll get it and you won't take advantage of it. It's not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems...what's hard is to decide to actually do it."^[39]

Downey got his first post-rehab acting job in August 2001, lip-syncing in the video for Elton John's single "I Want Love".^[40] Video director Sam Taylor-Wood shot 16 takes of the video and used the last one because, according to John, Downey looked completely relaxed, and, "The way he underplays it is fantastic."^[41]

Downey was able to return to the big screen only after Mel Gibson, who had been a close friend to Downey since both had co-starred in Air America, paid Downey's insurance bond for the 2003 film The Singing Detective.^[42] Gibson's gamble paved the way for Downey's comeback and Downey returned to mainstream films in the mid 2000s with Gothika, for which producer Joel Silver withheld 40 percent of his salary until after production wrapped as insurance against his addictive behavior. Similar clauses have become standard in his contracts since then.^[43]

After Gothika, Downey was cast in a number of leading and supporting roles, including well-received work in a number of semi-independent films: A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Good Night, and Good Luck, A Scanner Darkly, and Steven Shainberg's fictional biographical film of Diane Arbus, Fur, where Downey's character represented the two biggest influences on Arbus' professional life, Lisette Model and Marvin Israel.^[44] Downey also received great notice for his roles in more mainstream fare such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Disney's poorly received The Shaggy Dog, and David Fincher's 2007 film Zodiac, in which he played San Francisco Chronicle journalist Paul Avery.

On November 23, 2004, Downey released his debut musical album, The Futurist, on Sony Classical, for which he designed the cover art^[45] and designed the track listing label on the CD with his son Indio.^[46] The album received mixed reviews,^[47][48] but Downey stated in 2006 that he probably will not do another album, as he felt that the energy he put into doing the album was not compensated.^[49]

In 2006, Downey returned to his television roots when he guest-starred on Family Guy in the episode "The Fat Guy Strangler". Downey had previously telephoned the show's production staff and asked if he could produce or assist in an episode creation, as his son is a fan of the show. The producers of the show accepted the offer and created the character of Patrick Pewterschmidt, Lois Griffin's long lost, mentally disturbed brother, for Downey.^[50]

Downey signed on with publishers HarperCollins to write a memoir, which in 2006 was already being billed as a "candid look at the highs and lows of his life and career". In 2008, however, Downey returned his advance to the publishers and cancelled the book without further comment.^[51]

Summer 2008 blockbusters[link]

With all of the critical success Robert Downey Jr., had experienced throughout his career, he had never appeared in a "blockbuster" film. That changed in the summer of 2008 when Downey starred in two critically and commercially successful films, Iron Man and Tropic Thunder. In the article Ben Stiller wrote for Downey's entry in the 2008 edition of The Time 100, he offered an observation on Downey's commercially successful summer at the box office:

Downey promoting the film "Iron Man" in Mexico City, 2008

Yes, Downey is Iron Man, but he really is Actor Man.[...]In the realm where box office is irrelevant and talent is king, the realm that actually means something, he has always ruled, and finally this summer he gets to have his cake and let us eat him up all the way to the multiplex, where his mastery is in full effect.

—-- Ben Stiller, The 2008 Time 100, entry No. 60, "Robert Downey Jr."^[52]

[edit] Iron Man

In 2007, Downey was cast as the title character in the film Iron Man,^[53] with director Jon Favreau explaining the choice by stating: "Downey, Jr., wasn't the most obvious choice but he understood what makes the character tick. He found a lot of his own life experience in 'Tony Stark'."^[54] Favreau insisted in having Downey as he repeatedly claimed that Downey would be to Iron Man what Johnny Depp is to the Pirates of the Caribbean series, a lead actor that could both elevate the quality of the film and increase the public's interest in it.^{[22][55][56][57]} For the role Downey had to gain more than 20 pounds of muscle in five months to look like he "had the power to forge iron."^[58]

Iron Man was globally released between April 30 and May 3, 2008, grossing over $300 million in the United States and Canada^[59] and receiving rave reviews which cite Downey's performance as a highlight of the film.^[60][61] As a result, both Downey and Favreau stated their interest in making Iron Man a trilogy.^[62] By October 2008, Downey had agreed to appear as Iron Man in two Iron Man sequels and The Avengers, named after the superhero team that Stark joins.^[63] He also made a small appearance as Iron Man's alter ego Tony Stark in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk, as a part of Marvel Studios' attempt to depict the same Marvel Universe on film by providing continuity among the movies.^[64]

[edit] Tropic Thunder

After Iron Man, Downey appeared alongside Ben Stiller and Jack Black in another 2008 summer film, the Stiller-directed Tropic Thunder. Each man plays a Hollywood archetype—self-absorbed multi-Oscar winning Aussie method actor Kirk Lazarus (Downey), aging action hero desperately looking to reinvent himself as a serious actor (Stiller), and overweight heroin-addicted self-destructive comic best known for portraying multiple characters in a franchise of comedies about a family that farts in every film (Black)—as they star in an extremely expensive Vietnam-era film called Tropic Thunder. Lazarus undergoes a "controversial skin pigmentation procedure" in order to take on the role of African-American platoon sergeant Lincoln Osiris, which required Downey to wear dark makeup and a wig. Both Stiller and Downey feared Downey's portrayal of the character could become controversial:

Stiller says that he and Downey always stayed focused on the fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African-Americans. 'I was trying to push it as far as you can within reality,' Stiller explains. 'I had no idea how people would respond to it.' Stiller screened a rough cut of the film [in March 2008] and it scored high with African-Americans. He was relieved at the reaction. 'It seems people really embrace it,' he says.

—Entertainment Weekly- First Look: 'Tropic Thunder'^[65]

When asked by Harry Smith on CBS's The Early Show who his model was for Lazarus, Downey laughed before responding, "Sadly, my sorry-ass self."^[66]

Released in the United States on August 13, 2008, Tropic Thunder received good reviews with 83% of reviews positive and an average normalized score of 71, according to the review aggregator websites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, respectively. It earned US$26 million in its North American opening weekend and retained the number one position for its first three weekends of release. The film grossed $180 million in theaters before its release on home video on November 18, 2008. Downey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal as Lazarus.

Post-2008 career[link]

Opening in late April 2009 was a film Downey finished in mid-2008, The Soloist; the film was pushed out from a November 2008 release by Paramount Pictures due to the studio's tight end-of-year release schedule.^[67] Critics who had seen the film in 2008 were mentioning it as a possible Academy Award candidate.^[68] Downey still picked up an Academy Award nomination for the 2008 release year for his role in Tropic Thunder,^[69] but did not garner similar recognition for The Soloist after its delayed release.

With Rachel McAdams promoting Sherlock Holmes at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International.

The first role Downey accepted after Iron Man was the title character in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. Warner Bros. released on December 25, 2009.^[70] The film set several box office records in the United States for a Christmas Day release, beating the previous record holder, 2008's Marley & Me, by nearly $10M, and finished second only to Avatar in a record-setting Christmas weekend box office. Sherlock Holmes ended up being the 8th highest grossing film of 2009.^[71][72] When Downey won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his role as Sherlock Holmes, he noted in his acceptance speech that he had prepared no remarks because "my wife (Sherlock Holmes producer Susan Downey) told me at 10:00 this morning that Matt Damon (nominated for his role in The Informant!) was going to win."

With the cast of The Avengers, Joss Whedon and Kevin Feige at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.

Following the tremendous success of 2008's Iron Man, Downey agreed to reprise his role as Tony Stark in two more Iron Man films as well as the superhero team put together by S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avengers. After appearing in a connecting cameo scene at the end of the 2008 version of The Incredible Hulk, Downey returned as Tony Stark in the first of two planned sequels to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, opened in May 2010. It grossed over $623M worldwide on its way to becoming the 7th highest grossing film of 2010. Downey reprised Tony Stark in The Avengers (released May 2012), and will play Tony Stark again in Iron Man 3 (pre-production for 2013 release).

Downey's other commercial film release of 2010 was the comedy road film Due Date. The movie, co-starring Zach Galifianakis, was released in November 2010^[73] and grossed over $211M worldwide, making it the 36th highest grossing movie of 2010.^[74] Downey's sole 2011 film credit was the sequel to the 2009 version of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which opened worldwide on December 16, 2011.

Nissan "Innovation for all" voiceover[link]

In August 2010, Nissan Motor rolled out its newest ad campaign, "Innovation for all", the successor to its long-running "Shift" campaign. The campaign will consist of five spots covering the Nissan 2012 product line, with Downey providing narration for the ads.^[75]

Music career[link]

Robert Downey Jr. has sung on several soundtracks in his films such as Chaplin, Too Much Sun, Two Girls and a Guy, Friends and Lovers, The Singing Detective and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He released a CD in 2004 called The Futurist, and while promoting his film Tropic Thunder, he and his co-stars Ben Stiller and Jack Black were back up singers "The Pips" to Gladys Knight singing "Midnight Train to Georgia". He also sang the Christmas song, "River" which receives heavy radio airplay around the Christmas season.

Awards and recognition[link]

Production company[link]

On June 14, 2010, Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan, opened their own production company called Team Downey. Their first project will be the Steve McQueen script, Yucatan, which is a heist film.^[76]

Personal life[link]

Downey, Jr. and his wife, Susan Downey, at the 2010 Academy Awards

Downey started dating actress Sarah Jessica Parker after meeting her on the set of Firstborn. They separated in 1991 because of his drug addiction, according to Downey.^[77] He married actress/singer Deborah Falconer on May 29, 1992, after a 42-day courtship,^[78] and had a son with her, Indio Falconer Downey, born on September 7, 1993^[79] in Los Angeles County, California. The strain on their marriage from Downey's repeated trips to rehab and jail finally reached a breaking point; in 2001, in the midst of Downey's last arrest and sentencing to an extended stay in rehab, Falconer left Downey and took Indio with her.^[78] Downey and Falconer finalized their divorce on April 26, 2004. Downey now sees his son frequently after settling custody arrangements with Falconer.^[78]

In 2003, on the set of Gothika, Downey met producer Susan Levin, an Executive Vice President of Production at Joel Silver's film company, Silver Pictures.^[42] Downey and Susan quietly struck up a romance during production, though Susan turned down his romantic advances twice.^[80] Despite Susan's worries that the romance would not last after the completion of shooting because "he's an actor; I have a real job",^[80] the couple's relationship continued after production wrapped on Gothika, and Downey proposed to Susan on the night before her thirtieth birthday.^[80] The couple were married on August 27, 2005, in a Jewish ceremony at Amagansett, New York. They have a son together named Exton Elias Downey, born on February 7, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.^[81][82] He credits his wife with helping him kick his drug and alcohol habits. "There's no understanding for me of the bigger picture in real time in a hands-on way without her. Because it was the perfect, perfect, perfect matching of personalities and gifts."^[83] One of his biceps reads "Suzie Q" in tribute to her.^[84][85]

Downey says he has been drug-free since July 2003,^[86] thanks to his family, therapy, meditation, twelve-step recovery programs, yoga and the practice of Wing Chun Kung Fu.^[16] He has described his religious beliefs as "Jewish-Buddhist",^[87] although he has been interested in the past in Christianity and the Hare Krishna ideology.^[87] In a panel discussion, Rachel McAdams, who co-starred with Downey in Sherlock Holmes, called him a "superhero" for his "committed" work ethic.^[88] On the same panel, Downey described how he worked long hours and many weekends to ensure the accuracy of his portrayal of Holmes so as to help make the film a success.^[88]

Downey has been a close friend of Mel Gibson since they starred in Air America. Downey defended Gibson during the controversy surrounding The Passion of the Christ, and said "nobody's perfect" in reference to Gibson's DUI.^[89] Said Gibson of Downey:^[90]

He was one of the first people to call and offer the hand of friendship. He just said, 'Hey, welcome to the club. Let's go see what we can do to work on ourselves.'

Downey has indicated that his time in prison changed his political point of view somewhat, saying: "I have a really interesting political point of view, and it's not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you can't go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You can't. I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics ever since."^[91] Nevertheless, he was present at a Hollywood fundraiser for Barack Obama in 2012.^[92]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Video games[link]

References[link]