Well, did he? Or didn’t he? Was he? Or wasn’t he? As all true believers can testify, such questions can only be a reference as to whether superhero Tony Stark – the role the ever-dissolute Robert Downey Jr was surely born to play – survived Avengers: Infinity War.

Despite the fact most of the world has already seen the big screen outing that Marvel has been building up to over the last 10 years, it would be invidious to spoil the pay-off of this most behemoth-like intergalactic-bad-guy-bashing motion picture. Suffice to say, post Infinity War, the universe is a little less super.

As for Robert Downey Jr, are his electro-magnetic flight boots among those that need filling? Well, that would be telling. If, however, the Marvel universe has said goodbye to its pre-eminent playboy turned metal-clad crusader, it could prove as big a threat to its continued existence as any magic diamond-wielding apocalypse junkie.

Since 2009, when Marvel took its first tentative steps into the multiplex with the original Iron Man movie, Downey has been the uncrowned king of the franchise. This is almost wholly down to the actor’s immensely likeable take on Stark, a man with a nuclear plant for a heart, an eye for the ladies and a nice line in snarky putdowns.

Back in 2007, though, when Marvel was first casting for its Iron Man, Downey was something of a gamble, largely an account of his tumultuous personal life and his unrivalled reputation for unreliability.

Unlike many other Marvel heroes who got their powers after being bitten by a radioactive rabbit or inherited them from their semi-deity dads, Stark had to fight to become Iron Man, desperately assembling the metal suit he needed to keep his damaged heart beating. It’s not too much of a stretch, then to see certain parallels with Downey, an actor who slowly rebuilt his reputation after a series of sackings, prison sentences and drug-related escapades.

By rights, though, his career should never have hung by such a slender thread. Born in 1965 to Robert Downey Snr, a counter-cultural filmmaker, and Elsie Ann, herself an actress, a movie career for Robert Downey Jr seemed almost pre-destined. Making his first film appearance aged just five, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor 22 year later, after playing the title role in Chaplin, Richard Attenborough’s acclaimed biopic.

Just as his success seemed assured, his long-simmering drug problem began to spiral out of control. Soon, a litany of repeated arrests, imprisonment, failed attempts at rehab, divorce and unemployability laid waste to both his personal and professional life.

After several highly-publicised and notoriously-unsuccessful attempts to get straight, Downey finally began to turn his life around in 2003, a transformation that he puts down to a combination of meditation, a twelve-step recovery programme, yoga and martial arts. Reflecting on his current booze and pharmaceutical-free existence, he says: “I don’t drink these days. I am allergic to alcohol and narcotics. I break out in handcuffs.”

It was Mel Gibson, a long-time friend, who underwrote Downey’s movie comeback by paying the insurance bond required for him to take the lead in The Singing Detective, a 2003 musical. Although the film was panned, Downey’s performance was considered a tour de force, leading to him taking the starring role in a series of high-profile movies, including Gothika, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Tropic Thunder. Downey was back, baby, and big style.

It was Iron Man, though, that truly anointed him as one of Hollywood’s favourite sons and marked his first appearance in a box-office beating, cineplex-packing, all-action blockbuster. It also triggered a huge upturn in his financial fortunes, with his earnings rivalling even those of billionaire Stark, his cinematic counterpart.

With the Avengers assembling yet again next year, Marvel is set to replenish his coffers at least one more time.  After that, Robert Downey Jr is signed to play a rather more modest superhero in 2019’s Voyage of Doctor Doolittle. There are also rumours that he will return to his other movie franchise, once again reprising his surprisingly muscular take on Baker Street’s finest – the inimitable Sherlock Holmes. 

It is Iron Man, however, with whom he will be forever synonymous While we will have to wait 12 months to see if the armour-clad Avenger can truly save humanity, it’s clear he’s already been the salvation of at least one of the movie world’s most wayward sons.

 

Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay
Images: AFP