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“You know, it’s times like these when I realize what a superhero I am.” You would be hard-pressed to find another actor in Hollywood who has had more of a roller coaster career than New York native Robert Downey, Jr. Getting off to a hot start after making his acting debut at five years old in his father’s 1970 film Pound, Downey enjoyed incredible success throughout the 1980s when he starred in films like Weird Science, The Pick-Up Artist and Less Than Zero. However, his early fame alongside the Brat Pack couldn’t overshadow his growing substance abuse issues as his addiction finally caught up to him in the 1990s.

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Spending more time behind bars than in the movie studio, the Academy Award-nominated actor hit a snag in 1993 and again in 2000 and 2001 when two drug arrests while he starred on Ally McBeal led him to be written off the series. Sentenced to court-ordered rehab, Downey finally achieved sobriety and has since returned to Tinsel Town bigger and better than before. Today, the 51-year-old is praised as Hollywood’s “Comeback Kid” thanks to his role as Tony Stark in the Iron Man franchise in addition to other films likes Sherlock Holmes, Due Date and Tropic Thunder, which earned him a second Oscar nomination.

Part of Downey’s amazing renaissance was due to him looking remarkably better with time, which many initially attributed to finally getting clean and staying sober. However, some have suggested that the Zodiac star enlisted the help of a talented plastic surgeon to revitalize his youthful appearance. After all, it’s not that often that someone who has spent decades living hard and fast can suddenly look younger in their 40s and even 50s. Although he might be a superhero on the silver screen, we’re certain anti-aging isn’t one of his real-life superpowers!

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As far as Downey is concerned, the 51-year-old actor says that his secret source of revitalization is all because of a few life changes to eat healthy and work out almost every day. Of course, few bought Downey’s excuse as the internet recently took a poll that showed nearly one-third of responders suspected that Downey opted for plastic surgery. Believe it or not, they weren’t wrong! One surgery has been confirmed although it isn’t as recent as you might think.

While serving jail time for violating his probation in Los Angeles in the late 1990s, Downey was involved in a kitchen fight where tempers raged and he was attacked by a pair of inmates. The report said, “Within seconds, it led to a brutal assault and Robert was punched and kicked.” Downey suffered a broken nose with large cuts across his forehead, which required the jail to move him to the nearby hospital for treatment. Although few prisoners can say they received plastic surgery while behind bars, Downey is the exception as a private surgeon repaired his nose and smoothed out his forehead to avoid scarring. While the assault made the news, the media glossed over the fact that Downey had gone under the knife.

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Many believed that between Downey’s time in jail, the brutal assault and his floundering acting career that he would finally learn a valuable lesson about getting into trouble with the law. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case as he found himself back behind bars months later only to see his luck begin to change when the judge sentenced him to yet another—his last—drug treatment program. Finally getting sober, Downey’s appearance continued to improve after his surgery in 1998 smoothed out any signs of a broken nose caused by that nasty kitchen brawl.

Since making his grand return to Hollywood, it’s likely that Downey has had additional work done on his forehead since he is noticeably lacking wrinkles and stress lines. While it’s possible that this is the result of the assault and surgery in jail, some critics suggest that the legendary Tony Stark has had a possible brow lift, a series of Botox injections and a blepharoplasty to tighten the skin around the eyes. Unfortunately, everything beyond his rhinoplasty in the late 1990s remains a rumor—after all, Iron Man is too busy with the Avengers to confirm or deny anything superficial.

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Regardless of whether the rumors are true or not, there is nothing that will get in the way of Downey’s incredible success as Hollywood’s beloved “Comeback Kid.” Topping the Forbes list of Hollywood’s highest paid actors from 2012 to 2015 with an impressive $250 million net worth, he continues to rise the ranks as one of the most successful actors in the past decade thanks to blockbusters like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. With even more on his plate in 2017 with the new Spider-Man flick, Homecoming, set to release, Downey has very little time for plastic surgery rumors as he focuses on life as one of Marvel Comics’ hottest and most charming superheroes.