Oscars 2024: Robert Downey Jr becomes first ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast member to win an Oscar
Comedy staple Saturday Night Live has been a pipeline to movie stardom ever since it first began, but up until Robert Downey Jr, no current or former cast members had ever won an Academy Award.
That all changed when the short-lived SNL alumni was named ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the 96th edition of the Oscars, just one of the seven trophies taken home on the night by Christopher Nolan’s all-conquering Oppenheimer.
The second-generation star was only part of the long-running show for 16 episodes between 1985 and 1986 and is hardly lauded as one of the most memorable talents to pass through the doors of the episodic institution, but he’s nonetheless made his own piece of history.
There are only a handful of SNL veterans to have even been shortlisted for Oscars after departing the series, with Bill Murray prime among them, having landed a ‘Best Actor’ nod for Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation.
Joan Cusack – who co-starred with Downey Jr on the 11th season – has two nominations to her name, while Dan Aykroyd was in the running for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ thanks to Driving Miss Daisy. Michael McKean and Eddie Murphy round out the relatively short list, but not a single one of them managed to win.
Of course, nobody really refers to – or even remembers – Downey Jr as a former Saturday Night Live star, given that it came so early on his career and didn’t end with him being covered in glory and propelled to bigger and brighter things, but he got there anyway.
Now that he’s become the first, though, maybe the floodgates will open, and more will start to follow his lead.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.