Robert Downey Jr.'s Wife: Who Is Susan Downey?

Robert Downey Jr.'s Twitter bio says it better than anyone else: "You know who I am." Just because it sounds a little cocky doesn't mean it isn't true.

From Charlie Bartlett to the Iron Man series, this award-winning actor has reached peak fame. And in October of 2020, Netflix released another four-episode season of David Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. Robert Downey Jr. was one of those guests, one of the ones who needs no introduction.

But has his wife, Susan Downey, reached that point of fame?

Who is Robert Downey Jr.'s wife, Susan Downey?

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Susan Downey is a film producer. Before she married her way into becoming an official Downey, her name was Susan Nicole Levin. Her birthday November 6, 1973, which makes her a Scorpio. 

Mrs. Downey has produced a total of 30 films and television shows, including The Book of Eli, RocknRolla, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. And of course, the Sherlock Holmes trilogy, starring Robert Downey Jr. as the title character.

Susan Downey is well-educated.

Susan was born in Schaumburg, Illinois, but moved to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career in film production.

She's proven her whole life to be driven rigid work-oriented because, in 1991, she graduated as class valedictorian from Schaumburg High School and summa cum laude from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

Then she starter her production work as both the Co-President of Dark Castle Entertainment and as the Executive Vice President of Production at Silver Pictures and lasted 14 years working for those companies before leaving in February 2009. 

She oversaw development and production for the Mortal Kombat series.

Downey Jr. isn't the only one invested in a cinematic universe as Susan played an important role working at Threshold Entertainment overseeing the development and production of the films Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation as well as its 22-episode TV series, Mortal Kombat: Conquest.

She met Robert Downey Jr. on the set of Gothika. 

In 2003, the two lovebirds met on the set of Joel Silver's Gothika. Susan was producing the film, and Robert was acting in it, obviously. 

It definitely wasn't love at first sight for these two love birds. At least, not on Susan's end. "Everybody else [on set] ordered Japanese, but Robert told us how oatmeal was the 'superfood.' He brought his own packets of oatmeal to have at lunch," she said. "And he had this box of various herbs and stuff. And then he started doing these yoga moves. I mean, he was interesting but weird." 

The relationship came as a surprise to her, as the only kind of connections she was expecting to find on set were work connections. Before meeting Robert, she said she was "very focused, driven, rigid, work-oriented."

"I didn't care about having a family or making a home. I didn't think about kids. It's not that I didn't want those things; I just didn't think about them," she added. "And then I had someone who came in as a tornado, this creative, beautiful ball of insane energy and passion. And it completely opened me up."

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She helped Robert Downey Jr. through his addiction struggles.

She was said to have given Downey Jr. an ultimatum that he would have to stop partying and doing drugs if he really wanted to be with her while trying to sympathize with his addiction struggles to crack cocaine and heroin as it stemmed from his father having an addiction problem.

She once admitted in a Hollywood Reporter interview that she was incredibly ignorant of the hold addiction had on people. 

She got engaged to Robert Downey Jr. in 2005.

She said in a Harpers Bazaar interview that she knew he was her person shortly into the relationship. "There was something in my gut that knew really quickly. I knew three months in that this was it." R

DJ's divorce with Deborah Falconer wasn't finalized by the time he popped the question to Susan. That, coupled with RDJ's struggles with alcohol abuse and addiction, forced Susan to put the idea of marriage on hold. 

Two years after their engagement, Robert Downey Jr. was able to turn his life around. On August 27th, 2005 the lovely couple called it official and said their "I do's."

The two became lawfully wedded husband and wife in the Hamptons, where Sting and Billy Joel serenaded them on their big day.

She is Jewish-American.

Susan's Jewish culture is a part of her identity as her wedding was said to be a Jewish ceremony and she gave her own children Hebrew names as her son's full name includes the name Elias which is a popular Hebrew name and her daughter's name Avri is similar to the Hebrew nickname for Avraham. 

She helped Robert Downey Jr. get the role of Sherlock Holmes.

Susan played an instrumental role in helping Robert Downey Jr. get the role of Sherlock Holmes as her friend and director, Guy Ritchie, who was recently hired by Warner Bros. and was looking to shoot his first big-budget action movie and Susan co-produced it.

She was able to convince Ritchie to get Downey Jr. to play the role and after that, Susan and Robert worked with each other more closely.  

She had her children at the age of 38 and 40.

It took a little while longer to get Downey Jr.'s life back together after the two of them got married and spent seven whole years together to connect and strengthen their beautiful relationship so that they were ready for their own kids.

The two already co-parented his stepson Indio Falconer Downey with his ex-wife but in 2012, Susan gave birth to their first child, Exton Elias, and then two years later welcomed their first daughter Avri Roel Downey. 

Team Downey is the name of their production company. 

Children aren't the only collaboration between the two. Team Downey produced Dolittle, The Judge, and is considering working on an adaptation of the horror novel, A Head Full of Ghosts. Their production company Team Downey is now represented by WME. 

Susan Downey has a net worth of $20 million.

Susan's work as a producer and an executive producer throughout her life helped her gain a hefty 20 million dollars.

Downey Jr.'s net worth, on the other hand, is 300 million dollars from his significant roles as Sherlock Holmes and Tony Stark in the Marvel cinematic universe Avengers and Iron Man movies. Is Robert Downey Jr. a billionaire? Not quite — together, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey's net worth totals 320 million dollars. 

The couple shares a 19th-century windmill home.

In 2017, the Downey's purchased the 8,500 square foot Edward DeRose windmill cottage in the Hamptons for 10.5 million dollars. The mini-mansion cottage contains seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, and an office and library in the windmill structure. They also have 4 acres of land with a pool, tennis court, and gardens.

Susan also has a home in Santa Monica which she purchased for four million dollars as well as a 13.44 million dollar seven-acre estate in Malibu.

The couple together owns several commercial and residential properties in Venice, California, including a 2.5 million dollar Pacific Palisades home.

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Izzy Casey is a writer who covers pop culture.