Robert Downey Jr is mourning the loss of his beloved mother Elsie, who died on Monday. The actor wrote a touching tribute to his mother, whom he credits with helping him to get sober in 2004. Robert, who is busy promoting his upcoming film The Judge, wrote that he penned the tribute to his mother because he felt that "a generic obit won't suffice." The actor summarized his mother's entire life, and discussed how Elsie tried to become a comedienne in the 1950s and 1960s.
After marrying Robert's father, Robert said that his mother jumped into the "underground counter-culture film and theatre" revolution going on during that time.
"With her as Bob Sr's muse, they jumped in wholeheartedly," he wrote before naming off some of his mother's most notable performances. He then recalled how his mother eventually spiraled into alcoholism.
Robert Downey Jr. paid tribute to his beloved mother in a Facebook post. (Joe Alvarez)
"By the mid '70s, the downside of drug culture caught up with many artists. She was an alcoholic..."
In 1990, Robert wrote that his mother finally got sober. He, however, was struggling with his own addictions to drugs and alcohol.
"She'd had enough, went to treatment, got sober. Just in time to enjoy several decades of heart disease, bypasses, you name it," he wrote. "While I strived to have the kind of success that eluded her, my own addiction repeatedly forbade it."
Robert recalled that his mother helped him get sober in 2004.
"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."
Robert's mother spent her later years enjoying her grandchildren, growing particularly close to Robert's son Indio, despite her declining health.
"Her doctors basically titled her a 'Medical Incredible,' said there was little they could do, and were frankly amazed she was up and walking," he wrote. "Many fond memories of her in the last few years...holidays, kid-stuff, her strutting around with a walking stick. I knew it was difficult, and understood as the visits got shorter."
Elsie Downey was present on the day in 2009 that her son put his hands and feet into cement at Hollywood's Grauman's Chinese Theatre. (WENN)
In March Robert's mother was put on life support after going into cardiac arrest. Her condition had improved, Robert said, when he went to see her in June after completing filming of The Avengers sequel. Eventually, however, her health declined and she was put into hospice care before passing away on September 22.
"She was my role model as an actor, and as a woman who got sober and stayed that way," he wrote. "She was also reclusive, self-deprecating, a stoic Scotch-German rural Pennsylvanian, a ball buster, stubborn, and happy to hold a grudge…That's all her...and I wouldn't have it any other way."
Robert used his passage to not only pay tribute to his beloved mother, but to encourage his fans to focus on their relationships with their own mothers.
"If anyone out there has a mother, and she's not perfect, please call her and say you love her anyway," he wrote.
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