Robert Downey, Sr. Biography

Robert John Downey Sr. (born Robert Elias Jr.; June 24, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. The father of actor Robert Downey Jr., he is best known for writing and directing the underground film Putney Swope, a satire on the New York Madison Avenue advertising world. According to film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon, Downey's films during the 1960s were "strictly take-no-prisoners affairs, with minimal budgets and outrageous satire, effectively pushing forward the countercultural agenda of the day."