Robert Downey Sr., the accomplished countercultural filmmaker, actor and father of superstar Robert Downey Jr., has died. He was 85. Downey Jr. wrote on Instagram that his father died late Tuesday in his sleep at home in New York. He had Parkinson’s disease for more than five years. “He was a true maverick filmmaker, and remained remarkably optimistic throughout,” Downey Jr. wrote. Downey was a Hollywood journeyman who made a name for himself with radical, anti-establishment films, like the low-budget Madison Avenue advertising industry satire “Putney Swope” and the Western Jesus parable “Greaser’s Palace.” He is survived by his wife, author Rosemary Rogers.
