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Robert Downey Jr. won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role in "Oppenheimer," where he played a villainous bureaucrat who seeks to destroy the acclaimed physicist.
Downey played Lewis Strauss, the former chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission who mounted a behind-the-scenes campaign to strip J. Robert Oppenheimer of his security clearance by tarring him as a communist.
Strauss's efforts were later exposed during a congressional hearing, as he sought confirmation to serve as President Dwight Eisenhower's commerce secretary, according to a Reuters report.
Critics praised Downey for playing against his conventional type. Though he has played junkies, hustlers and fast-talkers, Downey is perhaps best known for his multiple film appearances as Marvel superhero Iron Man.
Downey was considered a frontrunner for the best supporting actor Oscar, having collected Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild trophies for his co-staring role.
The actor earned his first Oscar nomination for playing Charlie Chaplin in 1992's "Chaplin." After battles with scandal and addiction, he earned a second supporting-actor nomination for his role in the war satire "Tropic Thunder."