Mother and son ... Robert Downey Jr with his mum, Elsie. Picture: Kristian Dowling/Getty Images Source: Supplied ROBERT Downy Jr has urged everyone to cherish their mothers in a moving eulogy for his own mum, Elsie, who died last week at 80.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Downey Jr wrote about his mum’s battle with addiction and how she ultimately inspired him to get sober.
Elsie Downey, who for years struggled to find acting work, fell victim to the drug culture of the 1970s, sinking into alcoholism, Downey Jr wrote.
“I remember living with her and her boyfriend Jonas, (who became a second father to me) in a 2 room 5 story walk up in Manhattan after that ... Bunsen burner for a stove, cockroaches, broken dreams ...”
“By 1990, she’d had enough, went to treatment, got sober.”
More than a decade later, she was able to persuade Downey Jr to seek help for his own substance abuse problem.
Shared struggle ... Robert Downey Jr was jailed for violating parole by using drugs and alcohol in 1999. Picture: News Corp Australia Source: AP “In the summer of 2004, I was in bad shape,” he wrote. “She called me out of the blue, and I admitted everything. I don’t remember what she said, but I haven’t drank or used since.”
Downey Jr described his mum as his role model — “as an actor, and as a woman who got sober and stayed that way.”
“If anyone out there has a mother, and she’s not perfect, please call her and say you love her anyway.”
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