Who was Lewis Strauss? Robert Downey Jr role in Oppenheimer explained

Here’s everything you need to know about Robert Downey Jr’s role in the biopic.

By Naomi Gordon

2023-07-23 11:10:00

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has blasted its way into cinemas, racking up a huge box office haul (that was nevertheless dwarfed by Barbie‘s enormous taking).

The intrigue around both films with no doubt have been heightened because of their all-star casts, with Nolan’s three-hour epic starring the likes of Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.

Murphy stars as J Robert Oppenheimer in the film, which details his role in the development of the atomic bomb, which changed the world and the role of geopolitics forever.

Another major role in the film is taken by Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr, who plays US businessman and naval officer Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss.

But who was Lewis Strauss and what was his involvement in the creation of the atomic bomb? Find out everything you need to know below.

Who was Lewis Strauss? Oppenheimer’s Robert Downey Jr role explained

"Lewis
Lewis L Strauss in 1954.

Born in 1896, Lewis was an American financier, philanthropist, naval officer and government official who served as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. He was a major figure in the development of nuclear weapons, the nuclear energy policy of the United States, and nuclear power in the United States.

Early life

Strauss was born in Charleston, West Virginia, the son of Rosa (Lichtenstein) and Lewis Strauss, a successful shoe wholesaler. Their parents were Jewish emigrants from Germany and Austria, who came to the US in the 1830s and 1840s and settled in Virginia.

Strauss had planned to study physics, but due to the recession of 1913 impacting his father’s business, his parents could not afford to send him to college.

Strauss became an assistant to Herbert Hoover (US president between 1929 to 1933) as part of relief efforts during and after World War I. He also worked as an investment banker at Kuhn, Loeb & Co in the 1920s and ’30s, amassing a huge fortune and becoming a self-made millionaire.

"L
Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer and Robert Downey Jr is Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan.
Universal Pictures

After the death of his mother from cancer, Strauss founded the Lewis and Rosa Strauss Memorial Fund to finance the use of radium as a treatment method. It was because of this that he first met physicist Leo Szilard, who wrote to Strauss telling him of the Hahn-Strassmann paper on the discovery of fission in the hope that Strauss would fund his research. 

During the Second World War, Strauss joined the Navy’s Department of Ordnance to work on weapons production. In 1946, President Truman appointed Strauss as a member of the newly-created Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). He eventually rose to become its commissioner. 

When the Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in 1949, Strauss encouraged the development of thermonuclear weapons.

Strauss and Oppenheimer

During his terms as an AEC commissioner, Strauss became hostile to Oppenheimer, who had been director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project and remained in influential positions in atomic energy.

Strauss, a conservative Republican, disliked Oppenheimer, a liberal who had had Communist associations. Oppenheimer had seemingly left his Jewish heritage behind, whereas Strauss had become successful, despite the anti-Semitic environment of Washington.

"The
The Atomic Energy Commission, Thomas E. Murray, Eugene Zuckert, Joseph Campbell and Chairman Lewis Strauss.
Getty Images

Oppenheimer was a leading opponent of moving ahead with the hydrogen bomb and proposed a national security strategy based on atomic weapons and continental defence, while Strauss wanted the development of thermonuclear weapons and a doctrine of deterrence.

Strauss distrusted Oppenheimer and even thought he could be a Soviet spy. In 1953, Strauss asked FBI Director J Edgar Hoover to initiate surveillance to track Oppenheimer’s movements. Strauss viewed Oppenheimer as a threat to American security. Oppenheimer had his security clearance revoked in 1954 for alleged communist ties. 

Strauss went on to serve as the acting Secretary of Commerce under President Eisenhower.

Lewis Strauss died on January 21, 1974, in Trenton, New Jersey.

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Oppenheimer is now showing in UK cinemas. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.

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