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"The Pick Up Artist" (1987)
Maybe Downey drew on his role (at age 5!) as a lost puppy in "Pound" (1970) to craft Jack Jericho as hyperactive horndawg, desperately dodging and weaving to catch the attention of pretty women with cute, nonstop patter. "Artist" opens with this ... morecompulsive Casanova riffing pickup lines to his mirror, his auditions a far cry from De Niro's classic "You talkin' to me?" rant. Except that Jack's almost as possessed by his seductive role-playing as Scorsese's cabbie was by his wrath-of-God persona. Addicted to performance and improv (not unlike Downey himself), Jack's always "on": cruising in his red Camaro convertible to the beat of "Doo-wah-diddy ... she looked good, she looked fine ... ," he double-parks in the middle of the street, struts over to the passenger side and boogies in place until the song ends. Menaced by a junkie-mugger bopping to "Blue Suede Shoes," our Jack joins in, out-singing (and disarming) the dude. Such a cocksure boy Downey still is -- face a tad plump, youthful body as frenetic as a French mime's. But the dark eyes are clear, projecting a fierce purity that will persist through every role to come in the next two decades.

(Everett Collection)