A decade-long downward spiral of drug abuse

Robert Downey Jnr’s latest drug-related arrest yesterday could spell the end of a career that once promised to be among the most glittering in Hollywood.

The 35-year-old actor, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance in the 1992 film Chaplin, has now been dropped from the cast of the hit show Ally McBeal and faces a five-year prison sentence.