Robert Downey Jr. Is Officially The First SNL Cast Member To Win An Oscar
To surprise of basically no one, Robert Downey Jr. has just won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as Lewis Strauss in "Oppenheimer." The movie was one of the biggest hits of 2023, both critically and financially, and Downey was a huge part of it. He brought the scheming, insecure Strauss to life on the big screen, and helped take a storyline that could've felt like a bunch of complicated legal clutter and turn it into an emotional, high-stakes battle of wills.
Downey's win is heartwarming for a whole host of reasons. One is the actor's well-known struggles with addiction in the late '90s and early 2000s, and the other is Downey Jr.'s long history of starring in exciting, varied, interesting films. From "Tropic Thunder" to "Zodiac" to his many appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this man has definitely put in the work to reach this career milestone. Another key bit of background info: he's now the first ever "Saturday Night Live" cast member to win an Oscar!
Yes, even though "SNL" has been going on for nearly fifty years, not a single cast member has gone on to win an Oscar after their time on the show. (Adam Sandler almost had a shot at it with "Uncut Gems" in 2019, but was controversially snubbed.) Most "SNL" castmates tend to go on and excel in the TV landscape, and the movies that "SNL" alumni do go on to star in ("Stepbrothers," "Bridesmaids," "Elf") aren't usually Oscar-bait material.
An unlikely suspect
If you were to go back in time to the '80s or '90s and made an "SNL" fan guess which cast member would go on to win their first Oscar, there's a very, very slim chance they'd pick Robert Downey Jr. Not only did the guy only last for one season on the show, but he wasn't even particularly good on it. Rolling Stones still has him ranked as the worst cast member of all time. His most famous original character was probably Suitcase Boy, and Suitcase Boy was only really famous because of how weird and unfunny he was.
It's not that Downey himself wasn't funny, of course — we know from "Tropic Thunder" and "Iron Man" and "Sherlock Holmes" that he's more than capable — it's just that he wasn't a great fit for the show and he wasn't yet a seasoned performer. Much like other one-season cast members like Sarah Silverman, Joan Cusack, and Tim Robinson, time would show that the problem was "Saturday Night Love," not him. With better-fitting material and more experience under his belt, all of these performers got plenty of chances to properly show what they could do, in both a comedic and dramatic capacity. Downey has already earned his status as one of the best actors to leave "SNL," and his historic Oscar win has just cemented it even further.