‘Oppenheimer’ Star Robert Downey Jr. Gives Comical Speech After Winning Oscar for Best Supporting Actor

This next category honors the supporting stars (because every main character needs a badass sidekick).

Tonight, the 96th annual Academy Awards took place in Los Angeles. During the ceremony, Robert Downey Jr. won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer.

“I would like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy…in that order,” he said.

He beat out fellow nominees Ryan Gosling for Barbie, Robert DeNiro for Killers of the Flower Moon, Sterling K. Brown for American Fiction and Mark Ruffalo for Poor Things.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor has been around since the 9th annual ceremony in 1937. Last year, Ke Huy Quan won the Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once. He was up against Brendan Gleeson for The Banshees of Inisherin, Brian Tyree Henry for Causeway, Judd Hirsch for The Fabelmans and Barry Keoghan for The Banshees of Inisherin.

Other previous winners include Troy Kotsur for CODA, Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and the Black Messiah, Mahershala Ali for Green Book and Moonlight, Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Mark Rylance for Bridge of Spies, J. K. Simmons for Whiplash, Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club, Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained, Christopher Plummer for Beginners and Christian Bale for The Fighter.

Walter Brennan (Come and Get It) received the first-ever award in this category and currently holds the record for most wins (three). He’s followed by a seven-way tie between Ali, Waltz, Michael Caine, Melvyn Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Jason Robards and Peter Ustinov.

We can’t wait for the after-party.

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