Robert Downey Sr., director of the countercultural satire “Putney Swope” and the father of actor Robert Downey Jr., died Wednesday, July 7, in New York. He was 85.
DowneySr.’s wife told the New York Daily News he had been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease.
DowneySr.also acted, and directed several other films that gained a cult following. But 1969’s “Putney Swope” was given a mainstream release and thus exposed his work to a wider audience, which was shocked (even appalled) by much of what they saw at the time.
The devastating satire of Madison Avenue follows what happens when an African American activist is given a free hand at an ad agency. “Putney Swope” made New York Ma…
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