Robert Downey Jr played a
superhero on screen for over a decade, but did you know that to one fan, he was
also a superhero in real life. In a 2020 Reader’s Digest article, Dana
Reinhardt recalled a story about how the actor, who was years away from
becoming a global superstar with the Marvel movies, kicked into gear when he
saw her grandmother had injured herself gravely. And he even made sure to be as
charming as he could.
On Downey’s 57th birthday,
here’s a throwback to that story. The incident happened in the early 90s, before
Downey’s much-publicized brushes with the law. The actor famously overcame
a drug addiction and was uninsurable for a while before he was hired to play
Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The author of the article was
attending a garden party for the ACLU of Southern California with her
80-year-old grandmother. She pointed Downey out to her, but the elderly lady
had no idea who he was. After the event ended, the author and her grandmother
got up to leave, but her grandmother tripped and fell, slashing her chin open.
Blood was spurting everywhere. “I sat down and put my head between my knees
because I thought I was going to faint…” the author wrote, adding, “Luckily,
somebody did take control of the situation. That person was Robert Downey Jr.”
She added, “He took off his
gorgeous linen jacket, he rolled up his sleeves, and he grabbed hold of my
grandmother’s leg. Then he took the jacket, which I’d assumed he’d taken off
only to get it out of the way, and he tied it around her wound. I watched the
cream-colored linen turn scarlet with her blood. He told her not to worry and
that everything would be all right.” The author recalled that Downey also made
sure to flirt with her grandmother. “He held on to her calf, and he whistled.
He told her how stunning her legs were,” she wrote, and later, “He walked
alongside the stretcher holding her hand and telling her she was breaking his
heart by leaving the party so early, just as they were getting to know each
other. He waved to her as they closed the doors. ‘Don’t forget to call me,
Silvia,’ he said. ‘We’ll do lunch.’”
The author admitted that she
was too embarrassed to say anything to him in the moment. Years later, when she
read about his imprisonment for drug possession, she thought about writing to
him in prison and reminding him of the story. But she didn’t. And then, fate
presented her with a third opportunity.
Years after her grandmother had died
and Downey had been released from prison, she saw him at a restaurant. “I said,
‘I don’t have any idea if you remember this …,’ and I told him the story. He
remembered. ‘I just wanted to thank you,’ I said. ‘And I wanted to tell you
that it was simply the kindest act I’ve ever witnessed.’ He stood up and he
took both of my hands in his and he looked into my eyes and he said, ‘You have
absolutely no idea how much I needed to hear that today.’”
