Robert Downey Jr

Born: April 4 1965
Where: New York, USA

The Oscar-nominated actor is now clawing his way back after a period when it seemed his career was on self-destruct following his well-documented drug problems.

A barnstorming performance in the American remake of The Singing Detective and a starring role in the hit horror movie Gothika have put him back on the straight and narrow.

However, at one stage the courts feared so much for his life that he was in protective custody after convictions for drugs and alcohol parole violations.

The son of celebrated independent filmmaker Robert Downey Sr, he once claimed it was his father who introduced him to drugs when he gave him a joint aged eight.

Downey Jr made his first screen appearance 1970 at the age of five, playing a puppy in Pound, a movie made by his father.

He went to Santa Monica High School, but dropped out when he was 17, and began working odd jobs, including being a piece of living art in a SoHo nightclub in New York.

When he was 20 years old he joined Saturday Night Live for one season and subsequently made the career move to Hollywood.

Downey Jr received his initial break from his father with a small part in America (filmed in 1982, but released in 1986), but did not appear in a credited screen role until 1983's Baby, It's You, directed by John Sayles.

After a series of small roles in the mid 80s in teen films such as Firstborn, Weird Science, and Back to School, he landed his breakthrough role as the tragic, cocaine-addicted Julian in Less Than Zero.

In 1987 he secured the leading role in director James Toback's film The Pick-Up Artist, which also starred Molly Ringwald.

He married Deborah Falconer in 1992, but four years later they were divorced. They have one son together, Indio.

He then devoted himself to learning everything he could about Charlie Chaplin, in order to play him onscreen, from youth to old age.

His performance in Sir Richard Attenborough's Chaplin in 1992 won critical plaudits and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. However, Downey Jr's erratic off-screen behaviour often meant that he was constantly featured in the tabloids, but it was a June 1996 arrest that was the beginning of the actor's troubles with the law.

When the police stopped him for speeding, they discovered drugs and an unloaded gun in his car. The actor was in and out of rehab as part of a sentence of three years' probation.

During this time he still continued to work in films. In December 1997, however, after missing mandatory drug tests, he was re-arrested and jailed. Two years later, after repeated offences, he was sentenced to a prison term.

While struggling with his addictions, Downey Jr remained focused on his career and delivered a handful of memorable performances.

In 1997's One Night Stand, he was moving as a gay man stricken with AIDS, and he proved effective as an associate of Kenneth Branagh's Southern lawyer in The Gingerbread Man in 1998.

After being in prison for a year, Downey Jr - whose role model is hellraiser Peter O'Toole - was released in August 2000 and immediately entered a drug treatment clinic.

The first job he then accepted was a recurring role in the comedy series Ally McBeal, where he portrayed the attorney Larry Paul who became Ally's love interest.

However, his personal troubles persisted, and towards the end of 2000, the actor was arrested on weapons and drug possession charges again.

Two months later, he picked up a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actor in a comedy series for Ally McBeal.

But in April 2001, just prior to the end of the filming season, Downey Jr was once again arrested for being under the influence of a controlled substance.

As a result of this, producer David E Kelley fired him and re-wrote the series' last episode, in which his character was supposed to marry Ally.

In July 2001, he was sentenced to three years probation, including one-year in a drug rehab centre.

Emerging from his years of drugs abuse, his first role was in a short - Lethargy - as an animal therapist and then he starred as Dan Dark in Dennis Potter's noirish The Singing Detective.

His old friend Mel Gibson, who also plays a psychiatrist in the film, had a hand in landing the role for the troubled star.

Next up was the short Whatever We Do with the stellar cast including Tim Roth, Zooey Deschanel and Amanda Peet and the horror feature Gothika with Halle Berry and Penelope Cruz.