--- title: Theory of Everything: Stephen Hawking Congratulates Eddie Redmayne description: "I'm very proud of you," the famous physicist wrote on Facebook canonical: https://time.com/3719584/eddie-redmayne-best-actor-oscar-stephen-hawking/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-23T22:09:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:29.013Z og:title: Read Stephen Hawking's Sweet Note to Eddie Redmayne After His Oscar Win og:description: "I'm very proud of you," the famous physicist wrote on Facebook og:url: https://time.com/3719584/eddie-redmayne-best-actor-oscar-stephen-hawking/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte07de553e2cfc7ec/698780a2428a9efe6fcc74ab/460852714.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4437 og:image:height: 2496 og:image:alt: From left: Stephen Hawking and Eddie Redmayne. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Stephen Hawking's Sweet Note to Eddie Redmayne After His Oscar Win twitter:description: "I'm very proud of you," the famous physicist wrote on Facebook twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte07de553e2cfc7ec/698780a2428a9efe6fcc74ab/460852714.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Stephen Hawking's Sweet Note to Eddie Redmayne After His Oscar Win > Sponsored content. 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Ian Waldie—Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Feb 23, 2015 10:09 PM UTC Stephen Hawking, who joined Facebook [just a few months ago](http://time.com/3536998/stephen-hawking-facebook/), used the social media site to write a brief but touching note to Eddie Redmayne, who won the Best Actor Oscar Sunday night. In _The Theory of Everything,_ Redmayne portrayed the world-renowned physicist and his struggle with ALS. Shortly after the Academy Awards ceremony, Hawking shared the following post, saying he was “very proud” of the actor: In his [acceptance speech](http://time.com/3716096/oscars-2015-best-actor/), Redmayne said, “I’m fully aware that I am a lucky, lucky man. This Oscar belongs to all of those people around the world battling ALS.” _Read next:_ [_Stephen Hawking Wants to Be a Bond Villain_](http://time.com/3612611/stephen-hawking-wants-to-be-a-bond-villain/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ### Biopic Actors and Their Real-Life Counterparts  Meryl Streep plays Emmeline Pankhurst in Suffragette Focus; Topical Press Agency/Getty Images  Michael Fassbender plays Steve Jobs in Steve Jobs Universal; Bob Riha Jr—Getty Images  Ellen Page plays Stacie Andree in Freeheld Lionsgate; Tom Spader—AP  Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Philippe Petit in The Walk Sony Pictures; Dave Pickoff—AP  Johnny Depp plays James 'Whitey' Bulger in Black Mass Warner Brothers; AP  André Benjamin plays Jimi Hendrix in All Is By My Side Patrick Redmond—XLrator Media; Photoshot/Getty Images  Adrien Brody plays Harry Houdini in Houdini. History Channel; Hulton Archive/Getty Images  Chadwick Boseman plays James Brown in Get On Up. Universal Pictures; Gilles Petard—Redferns/Getty Images  Ashton Kutcher plays Steven Jobs in Jobs. Open Road Films; Tom Munnecke/Getty Images  Cate Blanchett plays Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. Weinstein Co.; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  James Franco plays James Dean in James Dean. Getty Images (2)  Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Weinstein Co.; Hulton Archive/Getty Images  Benedict Cumberbatch plays Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate. Disney; Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images  Anthony Hopkins plays Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock. Fox Searchlight; NBC/Getty Images  Salma Hayek plays Frida Kahlo in Frida. Miramax; Popperfoto/Getty Images  Gary Oldman plays Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy. MGM; Richard E. Aaron—Redferns/Getty Images  Denzel Washington plays Malcolm X in Malcolm X. Warner Bros.; Truman Moore—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Leonardo DiCaprio plays J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar. Warner Bros.; Bachrach/Getty Images  Ben Kingsley plays Gandhi in Gandhi. Columbia; Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images  Michelle Williams plays Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn. Weinstein Co.; NBC/Getty Images  Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. 20th Century Fox; David Gahr/Getty Images  Daniel Day-Lewis plays President Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln. 20th Century Fox; Culture Club/Getty Images  Don Cheadle plays Miles Davis in Miles Ahead. Brian Douglas, Ton Pouw—AP  Demetrius Shipp Jr. plays Tupac Shakur in All Eyez on Me. Summit Entertainment; Raymond Boyd—Getty Images [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] [00:02] You [00:05] see how the men's shirt fronts and their bow ties, how [00:07] they glow more than the women's dresses? Yes. Do [00:12] you know why? Why? Tide. The washing powder. The [00:18] fluorescence in the washing powder's caught by the UV [00:20] light. Why do you know that? [ LAUGH ] When stars are [00:30] born, and when, when they die, they [00:34] emit UV radiation, so if we could see the night [00:39] sky in the ultraviolet light, then. Almost all the stars will [00:43] disappear, and all that we would see are these [00:47] spectacular births and deaths. [ MUSIC ] [00:52] I reckon it would look a little Like that. 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