Multi-talented Iron Man's Robert Downey, Jr. appears at Comic-Con

  Iron Man 2 at Comic-Con                    (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Iron Man 2 is an upcoming 2010 superhero film, based on the Marvel Comics fictional character Iron Man.

This film is directed by Jon Favreau, with Robert Downey Jr. reprising the title role. The film will be released on May 7, 2010.

What actor Ben Stiller, of Night at the Museum, says of Downey:

Yes, Downey is Iron Man, but he really is Actor Man."

Robert John Downey, Jr. is an actor, film producer and muscian.  He has definitely found his niche. 

Downey's father, Robert Downey, Sr., is an actor, writer, producer, cinematographer, and director of underground films, and his mother, Elsie, is also an actress and appeared in Downey Sr.'s films.

In his childhood Downey had minor roles in his father's projects. He made his acting debut at age 5 playing a sick puppy in the absurdist comedy Pound (1970), and then at age 7 he appeared in the surrealist Greaser's Palace (1972).

Acting is always a challenge."  - Robert Downey, Jr. 

As a teen Downey grew up in Greenwich Village and attended the Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York. Downey moved to California with his father, but in 1982 he dropped out of Santa Monica High School and moved back to New York to pursue an acting career full time.

In 1985, at the age of twenty, Downey joined the cast of the weekly television comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL), Weird Science, The Pick-up Artist (1987), that same year, Less Than Zero, Air America (1990) with Mel Gibson, and Soapdish (1991) with Sally Field, Kevin Kline and Whoopi Goldberg.

In 1992, Downey starred as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, a role in which he prepared for extensively.  Other films in the 1990s included Heart and Souls, Only You, Natural Born Killers, Restoration, and The Last Party, a documentary written by Downey.

For approximately a decade Downey was involved in a variety of television shows, writing a book and creating music - an album, The Futurist.  Film The Soloist followed in 2009.

His latest film block busters, two of which are, Iron Man and Tropic Thunder.  Iron Man 2 (2010) and The Avengers (2012) are his next hits.  Downey appeared at Comic-Con 2009 in San Diego, California representing Iron Man 2.