Robert Downey Jr.'s father thought he was 'robbed' of Oscar for Chaplin

Robert Downey Jr. has revealed his late father went to his grave thinking he should have won an Oscar for Chaplin.

The Iron Man star won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Oppenheimer earlier this month, more than 30 years after he was nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in 1992's Chaplin.

Reflecting on his Oscars journey in an interview with People, Downey Jr. imagined what his late father Robert Downey Sr. would think of his recent win.

"Senior went to his grave going, '(You) got robbed for Chaplin.' He wouldn't say he really thought any of my other movies were very good or even that he thought Chaplin was any good, but he did know that I got robbed," Downey Jr. quipped.

"I think that he would feel that justice was done and that he can rest. But the problem is, he never cared about any of this s**t anyway."

His father, an independent filmmaker, died in 2021 aged 85.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Avengers: Endgame star noted that he experienced a full-circle moment at this year's Oscars when Al Pacino - who beat him to the Best Actor Oscar in 1993 - presented Best Picture to Oppenheimer.

"It's crazy that Al Pacino, one of my favourite human beings on earth, presented Best Picture," he stated. "And it's also crazy that, I think, deservedly he won the first time I was nominated (in 1993 for Chaplin), for Scent of a Woman."

In between Chaplin and Oppenheimer, Downey Jr. was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 2008's Tropic Thunder.