Robert Downey Jr — actor with roots in the Russian Empire
Robert Downey Jr. was born in Manhattan on 4 April 1965, the younger of two children of the underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. and the actress Elsie Ann Ford, who appeared in her husband's films. He made his first screen appearance at the age of five, in his father's film Pound (1970).
The family surname is the result of a teenage decision. His father was born Robert John Elias Jr. in 1936 and took the name of his stepfather, James Downey, when he wanted to enlist in the army while still under age. Downey Sr.'s paternal grandparents, Robert Jr.'s great-grandparents, were Lithuanian Jews, born in the early 1870s when Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire, who emigrated to New York. Genealogical compilations name them as Joseph Elias, from Jonava, and Augusta Goldberg, from Prienai; Wikipedia records them only as Lithuanian Jews. Downey Sr.'s mother was of Irish and Hungarian Jewish descent, and Robert Jr.'s mother was of English, Scottish, German and Swiss descent.
He moved between New York, California and London as a child, joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1985, and made his name in the films of the late 1980s. His portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin (1992) brought him an Academy Award nomination and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor.
The following decade was interrupted by drug addiction and periods in prison and rehabilitation; he has been sober since 2003 and has spoken about it openly. His return began with television, a Golden Globe for Ally McBeal, and films including Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) and Zodiac (2007).
In 2008 he played Tony Stark in Iron Man, the first film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and continued in the role through Avengers: Endgame (2019), a run that made him for several years the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. He also played Sherlock Holmes in two films, winning a Golden Globe for the first (2009), and received a second Oscar nomination for Tropic Thunder (2008).
In 2024 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, and that year made his Broadway debut in McNeal. His father died in 2021.
Tracing the roots — Lithuania
His father, Robert Downey Sr., was born Robert John Elias Jr.; the paternal grandparents of Downey Sr. were Lithuanian Jews, which makes them Downey Jr.'s great-grandparents. Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire at the time; the sources give no town or emigration date. Downey Sr.'s mother was of half Hungarian Jewish and half Irish ancestry.
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Lithuania. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.