Hyderabad: Three decades after his first Academy Award nomination, Robert Downey Jr. has won his first Oscar. Downey won best-supporting actor on Sunday for his portrayal of Rear Adm. Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, which was touted as one of his best performances in years.
It was the third career Oscar nomination for the seasoned actor, who is renowned as one of Hollywood's most diverse performers but had never won an Academy Award until Sunday. He received nominations for Best Actor for Chaplin in 1993 and Best Supporting Actor for Tropic Thunder in 2008. When accepting his honour, Downey offered a lighthearted speech.
"I'd like to thank my terrible childhood," he remarked, stopping for laughs from the audience, "and the academy, in that order." He also thanked his wife Susan. "You loved me back to life and that's why I'm here," he said.
Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's three-hour exploration of the development and aftermath of the atomic bomb during World War II, led the Academy Awards with thirteen nominations. Downey defeated Sterling K. Brown for American Fiction, Ryan Gosling for Barbie, Mark Ruffalo for Poor Things, and Robert De Niro for Killers of the Flower Moon.
Downey's win cemented his position as the favourite this awards season. He also won Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes, BAFTA Film Awards, SAG Awards, and Critics Choice Awards. "Why me? Why now? Why do things appear to be going my way?" he asked when winning his SAG Award.
Downey has spoken openly about his former drug problems. He confessed in his 2022 documentary Sr., which honours his filmmaker father, that he became addicted to narcotics at the age of eight. A string of drug-related offences and a year in prison followed Downey's first Oscar nomination 30 years ago, when he was 28.
The actor recently expressed gratitude that he did not win in 1993. "I was young and crazy," he admitted, adding, "it would have put me under the impression that I was on the right track."
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