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It’s been a long career road since Weird Science, and even though he’s always been on my personal A-List, Robert Downy Jr. is now on the official A-List.  Esquire has graced their cover with major motion movie star Robert Downey Jr., and this time, it’s not his mug shot.

The Scott Raab article peppers the piece with quotes and references to the literal and metaphorical highs and lows of the forty-something actor’s life.  Downey Jr. danced the lines that separate fame and infamy, sobriety and intoxication, and lawful and criminal since his youth, but by fate it seems his career has ultimately landed on the right side.  With appearances in movies such as Tropic Thunder, The Iron Man series, and Holmes under his belt, RDJ can finally relax and enjoy the stride that he hit “later than most folks,” leaving the notions of rehab, jail and joblessness behind.

He’s conquering personally as well.  In wife Susan Levin, “a chestnut-haired beauty from Chicagoland who came west for film school and became a heavy-hitting producer,” Downey Jr. has found “the perfect, perfect, perfect matching of personalities and gifts.”  He has one son, Indio Falconer Downey already, but doesn’t rule out the possibility of having another child: “Speaking of artifacts. The ultimate artifact of our love. In a onesie.”

The ex-con trouble child is now a Bently-driving, Rolex-wearing bona fide A-Lister who takes his success with great caution and keen perspective: “My whole story… I found my way out of the woods by a subtler and subtler trail of bread crumbs — now I’m just in the business of the business, and the business of my life, and the mind-blowing opportunities — and if nothing else, dude, I really love the way these ceilings look.”   I love the freakin’ enigma you are, Robert Downey Jr., and I sure hope that your rise to grace is a permenant move, dude.

Gallery Info:  Robert Downey Jr. for Esquire