Which actor played Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer?

Robert Downey Jr. played Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.

Strauss was a prominent American businessman, philanthropist, and government official who became chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. In the film, his career and political relationship with J. Robert Oppenheimer form a major strand of the story, alongside the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War.

Oppenheimer uses several timelines and visual styles to connect the Manhattan Project, postwar politics, and Strauss’s later confirmation hearing. Downey’s performance was widely praised and earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 96th Oscars.

The role is distinct from the film’s title character, played by Cillian Murphy. Strauss was not a physicist leading the Los Alamos laboratory; he was an administrator and political figure whose conflict with Oppenheimer became especially important during the 1954 security-hearing episode.