Recent Work

More recently, Downey co-starred with Jamie Foxx in The Soloist (2009), which tells the story about the friendship between a Los Angeles journalist (Downey) and a homeless Juilliard-trained musician (Foxx). The film registered a respectable showing at the box-office and earned the praise from critics, who lauded Downey and Foxx for their performances.

Demonstrating he isn't afraid of blockbusters (or English accents), Downey starred in the Guy Ritchie directed Sherlock Holmes in 2009. The film co-starred Jude Law as Dr. John Watson. In addition, 2010 returned Downey to superhero status with the second installment of the Iron Man franchise. The crime fighting picks up again in 2012, when Downey's Iron Man character is slated to appear in The Avengers, a movie that will feature a bevy of Hollywood talent, including Don Cheadle (Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes), Ed Norton (Hulk), Samuel Jackson (Nick Fury) and Scarlett Johansson (the Black Widow), among others.

Proving that he hasn't completely forgotten about his lighter side, Downey is the choice of director Steven Spielberg to star in the remake of the award winning play and 1950 Jimmy Stewart classic, Harvey, which tells the story of Elwood P. Dowd and his best friend, a tall rabbit that nobody else can see.

For his part, Downey isn't taking this professional and personal resurgence for granted. "I think part of my destiny has to be realizing that I'm not the poster boy for drug abuse," he told reporters in 2005. "I'm just this guy who has a really strong sense of wanting home and wanting foundation and having not had it, I now choose to create it."