Robert Downey Jr. Tops Forbes' List Of Hollywood's Highest-Paid Actors

Robert Downey Jr. is a hit machine. He’s starred in six movies that have each grossed over $500 million at the box office worldwide. Two of those films, The Avengers and Iron Man 3, each earned over $1 billion. Every studio in town would love to cast him, and now they’ll pay big buck for the privilege. Downey tops our list of Hollywood’s Highest-Paid Actors with an estimated $75 million in earnings between June 2012 and June 2013.

It’s hard to remember that just a few years ago, Downey was box office poison, and regarded by the studios as damaged goods. The promising young actor burst onto the scene in the late ’80s with movies like The Pick-Up Artist andLess Than Zero. But drugs quickly dragged him down until he became all but un-insurable. Directors like Robert Altman and Oliver Stone gave him work but for the most part, his career seemed to be a lost cause.