It's Oscar Gold for The Theory of Everything's Leading Man at 87th Academy Awards

Eddie Redmayne won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 2015 Academy Awards for his role as Stephen Hawking in Focus Features' The Theory of Everything. (Photo: AP Images)

The first-time Oscar nominee scored the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, based on his first wife, Jane Wilde Hawking's, book Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen. Felicity Jones, who played Jane in the film, was also nominated at this year’s award ceremony for Lead Actress in a Supporting Role.

The Oscar isn’t the first award Redmayne has received for his transformational role. The British actor, who spent six months preparing to play the famous theoretical physicist diagnosed with ALS, also won top nods at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and British Academy Film awards.

The Theory of Everything, distributed by Focus Features, received high praise in other categories at the Oscars with nominations for Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.

The biopic explores Hawking's early years at Cambridge, where he fell in love with liberal-arts student and future wife Jane shortly before being diagnosed with ALS. As the years progress, Jane begins to feel more like a nurse than a spouse, and Hawking develops feelings for a woman who is hired to care for him.

Redmayne’s win marks the second-consecutive Best Actor award for Focus Features, a division of NBCUniversal. Last year, Matthew McConaughey won Best Actor for Dallas Buyers Club, while Jared Leto earned a Best Supporting Actor nod.

The film is available along with many other current and past Oscar winners on Xfinity On Demand.