Billy Wilder dedicated his Irving Thalberg Memorial Award to legendary writer and friend I.A.L. Diamond who was in frail health. He died 10 days later.
This was the last Academy Awards ceremony to officially use the phrase "And the winner is..." when announcing the recipients in each category. This was subsequently replaced with "And the Oscar goes to...".
Both of the winners for Moonstruck (1987), Cher and Olympia Dukakis won their Oscars at the same time that their relatives had political success. Dukakis' cousin Michael had just won the New York Primary and Cher's ex-husband Sonny Bono had just been elected mayor of Palm Springs.
Three of the Best Supporting Actress nominees' names were Ann/Anne: Ann Sothern, Anne Archer, and Anne Ramsey.
A special segment featuring at least one cast member from every Best Picture winner for 60 years had been orchestrated as part of that evenings show. However, just before the ceremony began Anita Page collapsed from exhaustion on the red carpet and was rushed to Good Samaritan hospital. As the one surviving star of the second ever Best Picture winning film The Broadway Melody (1929) attending that evening, her eventual absence would have left a void in the presentation so the segment was scrapped at the last minute. Although at least one other source suggests the segment was dropped due to traffic problems amongst guests arriving to the ceremony.