It’s an important time in Robert Downey Jr.’s career. He has just received his third Oscar nomination for Oppenheimer, and it currently feels like he is a favorite going into the award ceremony. RDJ has a career that has lasted close to 40 years, and despite a bit of personal turmoil in the middle of it, he is still going strong to this day. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe under scrutiny the last few months, one must ask: Where would Robert Downey Jr. be without the gamble that was taken on him playing Tony Stark/Iron Man in the self-titled superhero film that launched what we now know as cinematic universes?