Robert Downey Sr., filmmaker and provocateur, is dead at 85 Putney Swope, a 1969 comedy about a Black man who is accidentally elected chairman of a Madison Avenue advertising agency, was perhaps Downeys best-known film. by Neil Genzlinger (NYT NEWS SERVICE) .- Robert Downey Sr., who made provocative movies like Putney Swope that avoided mainstream success but were often critical favorites and were always attention getting, died Wednesday at his home in New York. He was 85. The cause was Parkinsons disease, his wife, Rosemary Rogers, said. Putney Swope, a 1969 comedy about a Black man who is accidentally elected chairman of a Madison Avenue advertising agency, was perhaps Downeys best-known film.