Christoph Waltz wins best supporting actor Oscar

LOS ANGELES - Christoph Waltz has won best supporting actor from the Academy Awards for his performance as a refined bounty hunter in Quentin Tarantino's outlandish slavery epic "Django Unchained."

It's the second time in three years Waltz has won the category. He won the award in 2010 for his performance in Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," the role that catapulted the Austrian actor to Hollywood.

The category's competition was particularly stiff. All of the nominees were previous Oscar winners: Alan Arkin ("Argo"), Robert De Niro ("Silver Linings Playbook"), Philip Seymour Hoffman ("The Master") and Tommy Lee Jones ("Lincoln").

Waltz was seen as an underdog to the more venerated Jones and De Niro.

The 85th Academy Awards are airing live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles with host Seth MacFarlane.