How Tall Is Robert Downey Jr Really? Does He Measure Up to a Comic-Accurate Iron Man?

Hollywood can make anyone look 6-foot-something with a cape and a crane shot. Case in point: Robert Downey Jr., who looks like a tower of swagger as Iron Man, is not exactly towering in real life. The movies just play it smart.

So how tall is Downey Jr., really?

IMDb lists Robert Downey Jr. at 5'8", which puts him just under the average American male height of 5'9". On screen, Marvel smooths that out with staging, camera angles, and, yes, footwear. Gwyneth Paltrow is 5'9", and she has said Downey preferred she skip heels in their scenes together so he would not be shorter as Tony Stark.

"He doesn't like me to wear high heels around him because he doesn't want me to be taller than him cuz he's Iron Man."

If you remember a few Pepper-and-Tony moments where Paltrow is barefoot next to him, that is why. Downey has also been reported to wear height-boosted shoes on set to close the gap with taller co-stars. Classic movie magic stuff.

Comic-book Tony vs. movie Tony: height and weight

On the page, Tony Stark is a legit heavyweight. The comic version is listed at 6'5", and the armor adds even more height. Per Marvel size charts, a suited-up Iron Man stands taller than Captain America, Vision, Spider-Man, Hank Pym, and Black Panther. In print, only the big kids beat him: Thor, She-Hulk, and the Hulk.

Worth noting: many MCU versions skew taller than their comic stats anyway, with the notable exception of Tom Holland, who is shorter than the traditional Spider-Man measurements.

As for weight, comic Tony is 225 lbs. Downey reportedly weighed about 150 lbs before the first Iron Man, then packed on roughly 25 lbs to bulk up for that 2008 movie. These days he is generally listed around 180 lbs.

Background check: RDJ vs. Tony on ethnicity and nationality

Robert Downey Jr. has a mix of European ancestry: his father, Robert Downey Sr., was half Lithuanian Jewish, a quarter Hungarian Jewish, and a quarter Irish. His mother, Elsie Downey, had Scottish, German, and Swiss roots. He was born in Manhattan, New York, so he is American by birth.

Tony Stark is a little more fluid depending on which version you are reading. In the MCU, Tony is the biological son of Howard and Maria Stark, making him a White American. In several comic storylines, he is actually adopted by the Starks. One thread says his biological mother was British, and his biological father was a Hydra double agent of European ancestry. There is also an alternate take in the Ultimate Iron Man line where Tony’s biological mother is Maria Cerrera, a Latina, though across mainstream comics he is generally depicted as White.

How comic-accurate was Downey’s Iron Man?

• Tracks: The look and evolution of the armor, from the cave-built Mark I to heavy hitters like the Hulkbuster, are straight out of the books.
• Tracks: Founding Avenger status and Tony’s pro-oversight stance in a Civil War-style conflict (the MCU calls it the Sokovia Accords) line up with his comic politics.
• Tracks: He throws down with Captain America, and in the comics he has even wielded the Infinity Stones, so Endgame’s gauntlet moment has precedent.
• Changes: Pepper’s love-life arc is different. In the comics, she has a relationship with Happy Hogan, which the movies skip entirely.
• Changes: Comic Tony did not create Ultron or trigger the Sokovia disaster; that was an MCU remix.
• Changes: No mentor-ward dynamic with Spider-Man in the books, and comic Tony does not have a daughter.
• Changes: His death in Avengers: Endgame is a cinematic choice, not a direct lift from a single comic storyline.

The bottom line

Downey might be 5'8", but the charisma and the camera tricks do the rest. The MCU version hits the broad strokes of Tony Stark while remixing a lot of the personal-life details. Honestly, that blend is why the character worked: the iconography is faithful, the melodrama is Marvel Studios.

All the movies mentioned here are streaming on Disney+.