Robert Downey Sr., the famous pioneering director of American experimental film and father of Robert Downey Jr., died in his sleep on Wednesday. He was 85 years old.

In passing the news to his followers, the actor highlighted his father as a “true rebellious filmmaker” and his “remarkably optimistic” in the face of the “ravages of Parkinson’s disease”, which he has been suffering from for more than five years.

Associated with the experimental cinema that emerged in New York in the 1960s, in which films were produced independently and on very low budgets, reflecting the incompatibility of counterculture movements, his career began in 1961 with the 16mm short film “Balls Bluff”, which became a cult highlight of Titles such as “Babo 73” (1964), “Shaved Elbus” (1966) and “No More Excuses” (1968).

His most famous work is as the director and screenwriter of “Putney Soap,” a 1969 satirical comedy that the Library of Congress selected for preservation in 2016 because of its “cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance.”

The story revolves around the board members of an advertising agency who, in the midst of intrigue to avoid giving votes to competitors, accidentally end up electing Putney Sopp, the only member of the black race whose role was only symbolic.

With this success, Robert Downey Sr. moved on to projects with greater funding and well-known actors, including “Gracer’s Palace” (1972), and the television movie “Sticks and Bones” (1973), one of the first works on the novel in the novel. The Road. The Impact of the Vietnam War on Veterans and Their Families After Return, “Up the Academy” (1980), with very young Ralph Macchio.

It was the father who started his son’s “walk” when he put him at the age of five in “Bound” (1970) and then in “Griser Palace” and “Ab the Academy”.

When he became a professional, Robert Downey Jr. had more notable roles in “America” ​​(1986), “Rented Lips” (1988), “Two Brothers in the California Sun” (1990), “Hail Caesar” (1994) and ” Hugo Pool” (1997).

His last work as a director was “Rittenhouse Square” (2005), a documentary that followed daily life in a Philadelphia park.

Robert Downey Sr. has also appeared in front of the camera as a very supportive actor, most notably in William Friedkin’s “Living and Dying in Los Angeles” (1985).

Other titles include “Pleasure Games” (1997) and “Magnolia” (1999), both by Paul Thomas Anderson, “Two Destinos” (2000), with Nicolas Cage, and “Alta Golpada” (2011), with Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy.