Robert Downey Jr. Trivia
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65 free Robert Downey Jr. trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Robert Downey Jr. has lived several careers in one: the teenage Brat Pack-adjacent breakout of Weird Science and Less Than Zero, the Oscar-nominated Chaplin, the lost years of arrests and rehab, then the most lucrative comeback in Hollywood history as Tony Stark, capped by an Academy Award for Oppenheimer and a return to Marvel as Doctor Doom. This quiz walks that whole arc in 65 questions. Early rounds are easy for anyone who has seen the Marvel films; later ones dig into his 1980s and 90s filmography, his court cases, his one studio album, his Broadway debut and the business ventures he runs with his wife Susan. Difficulty runs from a warm-up 20 to expert-level 90. Every answer was checked against his Wikipedia biography, with the sentence that establishes it quoted alongside each question, so you can trust the facts before you argue about them at trivia night.
30 of 65 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Robert Downey Jr. was born in which New York City borough?
Manhattan
Manhattan: his father, underground filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., was born Robert Elias and took his stepfather's surname, Downey, so that he could join the Army early.
Q 02At age five, Robert Downey Jr. made his acting debut in which film directed by his father?
Pound
Pound (1970), Robert Downey Sr.'s absurdist comedy, has human actors play dogs waiting in a pound to be adopted or put down, which is why the five-year-old's first role was a puppy.
Q 03Robert Downey Jr.'s first credited adult role came in which 1983 film named after a 1960s pop hit?
Baby It's You
Baby It's You, John Sayles's high-school romance, credited him as Stewart, but most of his scenes were cut from the finished film.
Q 04Robert Downey Jr. played Ian, one of two high-school bullies, in which 1985 John Hughes film?
Weird Science
Weird Science cast him as Ian, who torments the two nerdy heroes; one of them, Anthony Michael Hall, became a close friend and later godfather to Downey's eldest son.
Q 05Which sketch show hired Robert Downey Jr. in 1985, then dismissed most of its new cast after one season?
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live hired young film names instead of club comics when Lorne Michaels returned in 1985; the cast never clicked, the show came close to cancellation, and most of them were let go.
Q 06Robert Downey Jr.'s first leading role came opposite Molly Ringwald in which 1987 film?
The Pick-up Artist
The Pick-up Artist was written by James Toback for Warren Beatty, who chose to produce it rather than play the womanizer, so the lead went to the much younger Downey.
Q 07Roger Ebert called Robert Downey Jr.'s performance in which film 'so real, so subtle and so observant'?
Less Than Zero
Less Than Zero cast him as Julian, a rich kid undone by cocaine; Downey later said the character was an exaggeration of himself until he became an exaggeration of the character.
Q 08Robert Downey Jr.'s first Academy Award nomination came for portraying which real-life figure?
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin: Richard Attenborough's biopic flopped at the box office, yet Downey's performance still won him the BAFTA for Best Actor.
Q 09In Natural Born Killers (1994), Robert Downey Jr. played a sensationalist TV reporter with what name?
Wayne Gale
Wayne Gale hosts the tabloid show American Maniacs, which turns the two killers into celebrities; his live prison interview with one of them sets off a riot.
Q 10Which 1989 comedy paired Robert Downey Jr. with Cybill Shepherd and Ryan O'Neal?
Chances Are
Chances Are casts him as the reincarnation of Shepherd's late husband, who starts dating the couple's grown daughter before his old memories come back.
Q 11Robert Downey Jr.'s 1996 incident of falling asleep on a neighbor's child's bed became known as what?
Goldilocks
The 'Goldilocks' incident: he walked into a neighbor's home through an unlocked door and passed out in a child's bed, and the family chose not to press charges.
Q 12A week after his unexpected release from prison in 2000, Robert Downey Jr. joined the cast of which TV series?
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal cast him as lawyer Larry Paul, Ally's new love interest; the role won him a Golden Globe, but he was written out after his arrest in April 2001.
Q 13Robert Downey Jr. was let out of jail on furlough in 1998 to work on which Tommy Lee Jones thriller?
U.S. Marshals
Q 21Robert Downey Jr. played a paranoid drug addict in which 2006 Richard Linklater film, animated over live footage?
A Scanner Darkly
A Scanner Darkly was shot on video in about a month, then animators traced over every frame, which took more than a year; Downey played the scheming housemate Barris.
Q 22Robert Downey Jr. played crime reporter Paul Avery in which David Fincher thriller?
Zodiac
Zodiac follows the hunt for a killer who taunted newspapers with coded letters; unusually for a thriller, it ends as the real case did, with no one ever charged.
Q 23Which character did Robert Downey Jr. voice in a 2005 episode of Family Guy?
Patrick Pewterschmidt
U.S. Marshals cast him as a State Department agent on a manhunt; he was furloughed from county jail in January 1998 to work on it, then went back behind bars.
Q 14Robert Downey Jr.'s first acting job after rehab, in August 2001, was a music video for which musician?
Elton John
Elton John's 'I Want Love' video follows Downey through an empty mansion as he lip-syncs the song; the director shot 16 takes and used the last, when he looked most relaxed.
Q 15Which star personally paid Robert Downey Jr.'s insurance bond so he could be cast in The Singing Detective (2003)?
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson, his co-star in Air America, was producing The Singing Detective and put up the bond himself after Downey's arrests had left him all but impossible to insure.
Q 16In Wonder Boys (2000), Robert Downey Jr. plays the editor of a blocked novelist played by which actor?
Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas plays the professor who cannot finish his book; Downey stayed sober through the shoot, then relapsed and was in state prison by the time the film reached cinemas.
Q 17Robert Downey Jr. met his wife Susan, a producer, on the set of which 2003 thriller?
Gothika
Gothika is where he met Susan Levin, one of its producers; he was still such a risk that 40 percent of his salary was held back until filming was finished.
Q 18Which actor took Robert Downey Jr.'s car keys and got him to an Arizona rehab clinic?
Sean Penn
Sean Penn took him to a clinic in Tucson, but Downey soon checked himself out, and in June 1996 police stopped his car and found heroin, cocaine and an unloaded handgun.
Q 19Robert Downey Jr. and his first wife, Deborah Falconer, named their son what?
Indio
Indio was born in September 1993; Falconer left in 1996, the year Downey was arrested on drug charges, and the divorce became final in 2004.
Q 20In Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Robert Downey Jr. played a journalist at which network?
CBS
CBS: he played Joe Wershba, a reporter on Edward R. Murrow's team who hides his marriage to a colleague because the network forbids staff from marrying each other.
Patrick Pewterschmidt is Lois's long-lost brother, and the happy family reunion sours when he turns out to be the killer of the episode's title, 'The Fat Guy Strangler'.
Q 24Which actor played Obadiah Stane, the villain of Robert Downey Jr.'s first Iron Man film?
Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges shaved his head and grew a beard to play Stane, Stark's mentor and business partner, who turns on him to seize the company.
Q 25Who plays Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's assistant, opposite Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man (2008)?
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper begins as Stark's assistant and ends up running his company, marrying him and, in Avengers: Endgame, fighting in an armored suit of her own.
Q 26Who directed Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man (2008)?
Jon Favreau
Jon Favreau pushed hard to cast Downey, arguing that the actor's own troubled past made him the right Tony Stark; Favreau also plays Stark's driver, Happy Hogan.
Q 27Robert Downey Jr. first reprised the role of Tony Stark with a brief appearance in which 2008 film?
The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulk ends with Stark walking into a bar to tell General Ross that a team is being put together, a cameo that tied Marvel's separate films into one shared universe.
Q 28What was the name of the self-absorbed method actor Robert Downey Jr. played in Tropic Thunder?
Kirk Lazarus
Kirk Lazarus, a five-time Oscar winner within the film, undergoes 'pigmentation alteration' surgery to play a Black sergeant; the role earned Downey a real Best Supporting Actor nomination.
Q 29In which 2009 biopic did Robert Downey Jr. portray Los Angeles columnist Steve Lopez?
The Soloist
The Soloist follows Lopez's friendship with Nathaniel Ayers, played by Jamie Foxx, a gifted musician who left Juilliard after a breakdown and ended up homeless on the city's streets.
Q 30Who directed Robert Downey Jr. as the detective in Sherlock Holmes (2009)?
Guy Ritchie
Guy Ritchie remade Holmes as a brawling action hero; he and Downey, both martial-arts enthusiasts, took their cue from the fighting art Conan Doyle gave the detective in the stories.