Robert Downey

In the 1960s, Robert Downey began writing and directing basement-budget, absurdist films that gained an underground following: Balls Bluff, Babo 73, Chafed Elbows, No More Excuses and Putney Swope, the first Downey film to earn a mainstream release. The irreverence continued in later decades with Greaser’s Palace, Pound, Sticks and Bones (a play for the New York Public), Two Tons of Turquoise, Hugo Pool and Rittenhouse Square, a 2005 documentary.