- Downing has achieved notoriety as an activist working to end the war on drugs, serving on the Board of Directors of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and as an Investigative Journalist, joining forces with the ACLU and Al Jazeera to uncover the Long Beach Police Department's TigerText disappearing messaging scandal in 2018.
- Graduate of Yale University.
- Downing was the show doctor responsible for the character MacGyver's aversion to guns, with MacGyver only using a gun as a weapon in the pilot before Downing was brought on. The show's strong stance against firearms earned it a boycott from the NRA in 1990.
- Downing worked for the LAPD for over 20 years, retiring in 1980. His first Hollywood job was as a technical advisor on Adam-12, advising Jack Webb who would later buy Downing's first script for the T.V. show Dragnet. While an LAPD officer he used three screen names to stay off the department's radar.
- As of 2020, Downing was working on a screenplay about Shona Banda, a mother suffering from Crohn's Disease who became a victim of the state of Kentucky's War on Cannabis.
- Has three children, Michael, Tambree and Julie.
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