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The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) is a trade organization based in the United States whose members are the owners of movie theaters.^{[citation needed]} Most major theater chains are members, as are many independent theatre operators; collectively, they account for the operation of over 26,000 motion picture screens in all 50 U.S. states and numerous other countries.^{[citation needed]}

NATO was founded in 1965 by the merger of the largest movie-theater trade organizations, the Theater Owners of America and the Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors.^[1]

In 2011, Sony announced that it would no longer provide theatres with free 3D glasses, suggesting that theatre owners foot the bill themselves. NATO characterized the move as "insensitive" to its customers and operators indicated that fewer theatres would show 3D films.^[2]

The official magazine of NATO is Boxoffice.

Events[link]

ShoWest[link]

ShoWest, one of several Nielsen Business Media's Film Group events, is a movie theater industry trade show or exposition established by NATO in 1975,^{[citation needed]} usually held in March.^[3]

As presented on the website for the Nielsen Media Film Group, hosted by Nielsen Business Media,

The Nielsen Film Group events — ShoWest, Cinema Expo International, ShowEast and CineAsia — are the only conventions and tradeshows dedicated to the needs of the movie theatre industry worldwide. Our events bring together the key decision makers from every major, regional and independent theatre circuit with the major International Film Distributors, as well as the manufacturers of products, services and technologies for the movie theatre industry. All of our events include screenings of upcoming films, product reel presentations, educational seminars, special events and awards galas.^[3]

According to Rick Lyman, of The New York Times, it is "the largest and most important gathering of theatre operators" in the world, at which "the theatrical distribution business takes stock of its problems, which have been legion, and assesses its future, always through the rosiest glasses available."^[4]

American Movie Awards[link]

In 1980, NATO initiated the American Movie Awards, held at the Wilshire Theater, Beverly Hills, California, and broadcast on NBC, with the winners selected based on voting by theater patrons.^[5] Various legal difficulties prevented the awards from being presented in 1981, and the event was discontinued after the 1982 awards due to competition from other awards shows.^{[citation needed]}

CinemaCon[link]

CinemaCon, founded in 2011, is NATO's official convention of theater owners. The first gathering took place March 2011 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the second held April 23 – 26, 2012, at the same venue.^[6]

CinemaCon Awards 2011[link]

Source:^[7]

• Cameron Diaz - Female Star of the Year Award
• Vin Diesel - Action Star of the Year Award
• Rosie Huntington-Whiteley - Female Star of Tomorrow Award
• Chris Hemsworth - Male Star of Tomorrow Award
• Blake Lively - Breakthrough Performer of the Year Award
• Ryan Reynolds - Male Star of the Year Award
• Harry Potter Film Franchise - Hall of Fame Award
• Helen Mirren - Career Achievement Award
• Russell Brand - Comedy Star of the Year Award
• Morgan Spurlock - Documentary Filmmaker of the Year Award
• Tyler Perry - Visionary Award
• Jason Momoa - Rising Star of 2011 Award (male)
• Julianne Hough - Rising Star of 2011 Award (female)
• Sid Ganis - Inter-Society's 2011 Ken Mason Award
• Miky Lee - Global Achievement in Exhibition Award
• Richard Fox - CinemaCon Passepartout Award
• Dick Cook - Pioneer of the Year

CinemaCon Awards 2012[link]

Source:^[8]

• Jennifer Garner - Female Star of the Year Award
• Jeremy Renner - Male Star of the Year Award
• Dwayne Johnson - Action Star of the Year Award
• Anna Faris - Comedy Star of the Year Award
• Chloë Grace Moretz - Female Star of Tomorrow Award
• Taylor Kitsch - Male Star of Tomorrow Award
• Josh Hutcherson - Breakthrough Performer of the Year Award
• Charlize Thereon - Distinguished Decade of Achievement in Film Award
• Michelle Pheiffer - Cinema Icon Award
• Sylvester Stallone - Career Achievement Award
• Judd Apatow - Award of Excellence in Filmmaking
• Timur Bekmambetov - International Filmmaker of the Year Award
• Universal Pictures International's Jack Ledwith - Passepartout Award
• Ted Pedas - NATO Marquee Award
• Delfin Fernandez - International Achievement in Exhibition Award
• Jeffrey Katzenberg - Pioneer of the Year

See also[link]

• Nielsen Business Media (Nielsen Media Film Group)

References[link]

External links[link]

• NATO Online - Official site
• Nielsen Business Media – Official site
  • Nielsen Media Film Group – Official site (Index page) of host of ShoWest, ShoEast, and related film expositions (conventions and trade shows)
  • ShoWest – Official site published by Nielsen Media Film Group (a division of Nielsen Business Media)
• allbusiness.com

Michael Bay
on the set of Transformers (May 30, 2006)
Born	Michael Benjamin Bay (1965-02-17) February 17, 1965 (age 47) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Film director Film producer
Years active	1984–present

Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects.^[1][2] His films, which include The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and the Bad Boys and Transformers series, have grossed over three billion dollars world-wide.^[3] He is co-founder of commercial production house The Institute, a.k.a. The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness.^[4] He is co-chair and part-owner of the digital effects house Digital Domain.^[5] He co-owns Platinum Dunes, a production house which has remade horror movies including Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.^[6]

Early life[link]

Michael Bay was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He was raised by his adoptive parents Harriet, a bookstore owner/child psychiatrist, and Jim, a CPA.^[7] Bay's grandfather was Russian.^[8] His cousin, Susan Bay, is the wife of Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy.^[9] He attended the exclusive Crossroads School, in Santa Monica, California.^[10] Bay often traces his interest in action films back to an incident during his childhood. As a boy, he attached some firecrackers to a toy train and filmed the ensuing fiery disaster with his mother's 8mm camera. The fire department was called and he was grounded.^[11]

Career[link]

Bay got his start in the film industry interning with George Lucas when he was fifteen, filing the storyboards for Raiders of the Lost Ark, which he thought was going to be terrible. His opinion changed after seeing it in the theater and he was so impressed by the experience that he decided to become a film director.^[12] He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1986, majoring in both English and Film.^[13][14] He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and a favorite student of film historian Jeanine Basinger.^[15] For his graduate work, he attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena where he also studied film.^{[citation needed]}

Michael Bay began working at Propaganda Films, directing commercials and music videos, two weeks after finishing his post-graduate degree.^{[citation needed]} His 90-second World War II-inspired Coca-Cola advertisement was picked up by Capitol Records. His first national commercial for the Red Cross won a Clio Award in 1992.^[16][17] He directed Goodby, Silverstein & Partners Got Milk? advertisement campaign for the California Milk Processors Board in 1993.^[18]

Bay's success in music videos gained the attention of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who selected him to direct his first feature-length film, Bad Boys. The film was shot in Miami in 1994 and starred Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. The action film proved to be a break-out role for Smith, who was segueing from television to films at that time. Shooting in Miami was a good experience for Bay who would later own a home in the city and spend a great deal of time there.^[19] The film was completed for $19 million dollars and grossed a remarkable $141 million at the box office in the summer of 1995.^[20] Bay's success led to a strong partnership and friendship with Jerry Bruckheimer.^[21]

His follow-up film, The Rock (1996), was an action movie set on Alcatraz Island, and in the San Francisco Bay area. It starred Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris. It was also produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, the latter of whom died five months before the film's release. The film is dedicated to him.^[22] Connery and Cage won 'Best On-Screen Duo' at the MTV Movie Awards in 1997 and the film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Achievement in Sound category for the work of Greg P. Russell, Kevin O'Connell, and Keith A. Wester.^[23][24]

In 1998, Bay collaborated with Jerry Bruckheimer again, this time as a co-producer, as well as directing the action-adventure film Armageddon.^[25][26] The film, about a group of tough oil drillers who are sent by NASA to deflect an asteroid away from a collision course with Earth, starred Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler. It was nominated for 4 Oscars at the 71st Academy Awards including Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Song.^[27] The film earned 9.6 million dollars on its opening day and a total of 36.5 million through the first weekend.^[28] The production budget, $140 million dollars, was one of the highest of the summer of 1998. Armageddon went on to gross over $553 million dollars worldwide.^[29]

In 2001, Bay directed Pearl Harbor. It starred Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale and Cuba Gooding, Jr. The film was released on Memorial Day weekend in 2001. Again, Bay produced the film with Jerry Bruckheimer. The film received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing and Best Song. Again, Kevin O'Connell received another nomination for Best Sound, but he did not win. Pearl Harbor won in the category for Sound Editing.^[30] Michael Bay also directed the music video for nominated track "There You'll Be" by vocal artist Faith Hill.^{[citation needed]}

Bay reteamed with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence for Bad Boys II, an event which also marked Bay's fifth collaboration with Jerry Bruckheimer. The film grossed $138 million domestically, enough to cover the production budget, and $273 million worldwide, almost twice as much as the first movie.

In 2005, Bay directed The Island, a science-fiction film starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. It was the first film Michael Bay made without Jerry Bruckheimer. The Island cost $126 million to produce. It earned $46 million domestically and $172 million worldwide. Bay stated that he was not comfortable with the domestic marketing campaign as it confused the audience as to the true subject of the film.^[31]

In 2007, he directed and teamed up with Steven Spielberg to produce Transformers, a live action film based on the Transformers franchise. The film was released in the U.S. and Canada on July 3, 2007, with 8 p.m. preview screenings on July 2. The previews earned $8.8 million, and in its first day of general release it grossed $27.8 million, a record for Tuesday box office attendance.^{[citation needed]} It broke the record held by Spider-Man 2 for the biggest July 4 gross, making $29 million. On its opening weekend, Transformers grossed $70.5 million, amounting to a $155.4 million opening week, giving it the record for the biggest opening week for a non-sequel.^{[citation needed]} As of November 2007, the film has made over $319 million domestically and over $708 million worldwide.

Bay returned as director and executive producer for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which was released on June 24, 2009 and went on to gross over $832 million worldwide. Although it received mostly negative reviews by critics,^[32] including aggressively critical reviews by American film critics such as Roger Ebert,^[33] Michael Phillips^[34] and David Denby (who referred to Bay as "stunningly, almost viciously, untalented"),^[35][35] the film was well-received by its intended audience and was one of the highest-grossing films of 2009.^[36][37] In 2010, it earned seven Golden Raspberry Award nominations and winning three: Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay.^[38]

As of 2009, Michael Bay's worldwide box office totals make him the director with the eighth highest domestic US gross of all time (not adjusted for inflation).^[39] It was also one of the best selling DVD and Blu-ray Discs of 2009, second only to Twilight in DVD format and the number one of all time in Blu-ray format until it was surpassed by Blu-ray sales of James Cameron's Avatar in April 2010.^[40][41][42]

Bay directed Transformers: Dark of the Moon, released on June 28, 2011.^[43] He may direct a sequel to the Bad Boys franchise or a "small" film he's been developing for years, tentatively called Pain & Gain.^[44] The true crime story, based on events described in a Miami Herald article^[45] written by Pete Collins, concerns a group of bumbling bodybuilders working together to commit a robbery.

Bay produced DreamWorks' I Am Number Four, based on a series of novels by authors James Frey and Jobie Hughes published by HarperCollins Children's Books. D. J. Caruso (Eagle Eye, Disturbia) directed.^[46][47]

Bay will co-produce One Way Out, a reality series that pits ordinary people against each other as they try to keep their pasts hidden and builds toward a showdown where all those secrets will be revealed.^[48]

Gideon's Sword, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's novel set for release in February 2011, was optioned by Bay Films and will be produced by Michael Bay. The main character, Gideon Crew, avenges the death of his father.^[49][50]

In June 2011, Bay confirmed that Pain & Gain was his next project and that it would have a budget of $20 million.^[51]

On February 13, 2012, Paramount Pictures announced that Bay will produce and direct a fourth Transformers movie with a scheduled release date of June 2014.^[52]

Production and FX companies[link]

Platinum Dunes[link]

Bay founded this production house with fellow producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form in 2001.^[53] Platinum Dunes is named after one of Bay's first student films at Wesleyan University. Brad Fuller also graduated from Wesleyan and worked for Bay as an executive assistant before joining him in this business venture. The company's first film, a remake of the 1974 film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, grossed $107 million dollars worldwide.^[54] Platinum Dunes produced lucrative remakes of classic horror films and introduced new directors like Sam Bayer and Marcus Nispel to feature film audiences. Their most recent horror film production, A Nightmare on Elm Street starring Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, was released April 2010. The film made 32.9 million dollars in its opening weekend, covering nearly its entire 35 million dollar budget and went on to gross over 100 million dollars worldwide.^[55]

Paramount Pictures signed a first look deal with Platinum Dunes in 2009.^[56] As part of this new relationship, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon have brought the Platinum Dunes producers on to produce a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, rebooting the film series launched by New Line in 1990. Bay, Fuller and Form will co-produce with Galen Walker, Scott Mednick and Marina Norman.^[57]

Platinum Dunes is currently in the process of selling an unnamed TV series to a "major cable network" with Bay in talks to direct the pilot.^[58]

Digital Domain[link]

Bay and Wyndcrest Holdings, a Florida-based investment firm, acquired the digital effects company Digital Domain from James Cameron and Stan Winston in 1996, infusing the struggling business with a $50 million dollar investment.^[5] Digital Domain considered an initial public offering in 2009 but ultimately withdrew the offer, because of the lack of interest. Currently a work for hire visual effects production house, Digital Domain plans to expand its efforts in the video gaming industry and become a full-fledged motion picture production house. Headquartered in Venice, Los Angeles, California, the company is also working to open branches in Vancouver, Canada and the state of Florida.^[59]

The Institute[link]

After leaving Propaganda Films, Bay and producer Scott Gardenhour, also formerly at Propaganda, formed The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness^[60] (now known as The Institute), to produce commercials and other projects. Through The Institute, Bay has directed and produced spots for Victoria's Secret, Lexus, Budweiser, Reebok, Mercedes-Benz, and Nike. His most recent advertisement for Victoria Secret was the 2009 "A Thousand Fantasies" holiday campaign.^[61]

Awards and honors[link]

Bay has received five MTV Movie Awards: Best Movie and Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet for Transformers, Best Action Scene for Pearl Harbor, Best Action Scene for Bad Boys II, and Best Action Scene for The Rock.^{[citation needed]} In 1994, Bay was honored by the Directors Guild of America with an award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials.^[62]

Michael Bay received the ShoWest 2009 Vanguard Award for excellence in filmmaking at the confab of theater owners.^[63]

Personal life[link]

Bay lives in Los Angeles and Miami with his two bullmastiffs, Bonecrusher and Grace, named for characters in Transformers and Armageddon, respectively. As a boy, he donated his Bar Mitzvah money to an animal shelter and often includes his bullmastiff dogs in his films.^[64] He had another dog, Mason. Mason the dog's last appearance in a film was as Miles' dog in Transformers. He died during production of that film in March 2007.^[65][66]

Filmography[link]

Feature films[link]

Television[link]

• Miami Vice (TV series) (1986) (actor - Goon #3)
• No Way Out (TV series) (announced) (producer)
• Cocaine Cowboys (TV series) (announced) (producer)

Music videos[link]

• "Soldier of Love" by Donny Osmond (1989) (director)
• "Angelia" by Richard Marx (1989) (director)
• "I'll Be Holding On" by Greg Allman (1989) (director) ... from the film Black Rain
• "I Love You" by Vanilla Ice (1991) (director)
• "I Touch Myself" by Divinyls (1991) (director)
• "Love Thing" by Tina Turner (1992) (director)
• "Do It to Me" by Lionel Ritchie (1992) (director)
• "You Won't See Me Cry" by Wilson Phillips (1992) (director)
• "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" by Meat Loaf (1993) (director)
• "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" by Meat Loaf (1994) (director)
• "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" by Meat Loaf (1994) (director)
• "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)" by Aerosmith (1997) (director)
• "There You'll Be" by Faith Hill (2001) (director) ... Theme from Pearl Harbor

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Bay

• Official website
• The Institute
• Michael Bay at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Bay at AllRovi

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]