Professor Stephen Hawking was delighted when Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for portraying him in the film The Theory Of Everything.
Prof Hawking, perhaps the galaxy’s most unlikely superstar celebrity, mingled with Hollywood stars ahead of the screening of the biopic, which also starred Felicity Jones as his first wife Jane Wilde.
And he wrote on Facebook: “Congratulations to Eddie Redmayne for winning an Oscar for playing me in The Theory Of Everything movie.
“Well done, Eddie, I’m very proud of you.”
The film, which is based on the memoirs of Ms Wilde, deals with their relationship, his scientific success and the onset of motor neurone disease which left him severely disabled, and was a huge hit with the critics.
The couple were married for 30 years from 1965, after they met while studying at Cambridge.
Redmayne admitted that despite having crossed paths with the professor as a student at Cambridge, he still felt starstruck at the prospect of playing him.
The actor told the Press Association in 2015: “The most rewarding part of it was getting to meet Stephen, Jane and the Hawking family.
“The whole film was this extraordinary mixture of great privilege and great responsibility and just being able to enter the lives of these people for a few months and to hear their stories.
“Even just to spend time with them was truly an honour.”
Redmayne dedicated the award to “all of those people around the world battling” motor neurone disease, and said that the Oscar belonged to “Stephen” and his ex-wife Jane and the rest of their “exceptional family”.
The actor also won a Golden Globe, Bafta and Screen Actors Guild award for the performance, while the film won Outstanding British film at the Baftas.