The gruesome TRUTH about Robert Downey Jr's 'terrible childhood': Inside Oppenheimer star's brutal upbringing - from trying drugs when he was just SIX to his spiral into addiction at 16... as he jokin

Robert Downey Jr alluded to his 'terrible childhood' during his Oscars acceptance speech after host Jimmy Kimmel made a very awkward quip about his drug use - but just how bad were his early years? Robert Downey Jr alluded to his 'terrible childhood' during his Oscars acceptance speech after host Jimmy Kimmel made a very awkward quip about his drug use Earlier in the night, host Kimmel had roasted Downey Jr's manhood and past drug use in his bombshell opening monologue. Robert Downey Jr's family lived hand-to-mouth and his father gave him drugs at just six years old The younger of two children, Downey Jr was born in Manhattan, New York City, in 1965 and raised initially in the bohemian neighborhood of Greenwich Village, where he says he was 'surrounded' by drugs at home. Downey Jr was only five when he had his first onscreen role in absurdist comedy Pound — in which the cast played stray dogs waiting to be put down Two years later, a seven-year-old Downey Jr would appear in another of his father's deranged films - a western called Greaser's Palace.