Oscars 2024: Robert Downey Jr wins 1st ever Academy Award for Oppenheimer; thanks his 'Terrible Childhood'

Robert Downey Jr won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Oppenheimer. Check out this quirky and witty acceptance speech at the 96th Academy Awards.  

Robert Downey Jr. won his first Academy Award during the 96th ceremony 2024. The actor earned Best Supporting Actor for his outstanding performance in Oppenheimer. In Christopher Nolan's film, Downey Jr. plays Lewis Strauss, J Robert Oppenheimer's antagonist. He stepped front stage and received his prize. In his victory speech, Robert Downey Jr. praised his 'awful childhood' first, then the Academy for the award. He also expressed his gratitude to his wife, Susan Downey.

“I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy — in that order,” Robert Downey Jr said before he turned towards Susan and thanked her. Comparing her with a ‘veterinarian’, Downey Jr added, “She found me as a snarling rescue pet and loved me back to life. That’s why I’m here, thank you.”

“Here’s my little secret, I needed this job more than it needed me. Chris (Nolan) knew it, Emma made sure she surrounded me with one of the great casts and crews of all time –Emily, Cillian, Matt Damon, Blunt—and I stand here a before you a better man because of it,” he said.

Robert Downey Jr.'s path to the Oscars began with wins in nearly every major award ceremony of the season, including the Golden Globes, British Academy Film (BAFTA) Awards, and Critics' Choice Movie Awards, for his portrayal of Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan's billion-dollar hit Oppenheimer.

Al Pacino won the Best Actor Oscar in 1993 for Scent of a Woman, beating Downey. In 2009, he received his second Oscar nomination for Tropic Thunder, but the honour was presented posthumously to Heath Ledger, the actor from The Dark Knight. Nonetheless, his performance in Oppenheimer has generated Oscar talk since its debut in July of last year. 

Other candidates in the category were Sterling K Brown for American Fiction, Robert De Niro for Killers of the Flower Moon, Ryan Gosling for Barbie, and Mark Ruffalo for Poor Things.