The Man in the Iron Mask (1939 film) insisted on Louis Hayward, who had just made "The Duke of West Point" for him. Louis Hayward played D'Artagnan in a gender-switched 1952 remake entitled "Lady in the Iron Mask" with Patricia Medina in the titular role and Alan Hale, Jr. as Porthos, the part his father Alan Hale, Sr. had portrayed in the 1939 version. In what may have been another instance of stunt casting, Hale Jr. played Porthos in the 1979 film "The Fifth Musketeer" (which is also based on "The Man in the Iron Mask"). Frank S. Nugent called the film "a moderately entertaining costume piece" with
Robert Downey Sr. York City, the son of Elizabeth ("née" McLauchlen), a model, and Robert Elias Sr., who worked in management of motels and restaurants. His paternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews, while his mother was half Irish, half Scot. The elder Downey was born Robert Elias Jr., but he later changed his surname for his stepfather, James Downey, when he wanted to enlist in the U.S. Army, but was underage at the time. Robert Downey Sr. initially made his mark creating basement budget, independent films aligning with the Absurdist movement, coming of age in counterculture anti-establishment 1960s America. His work in the late