During a break in the Academy Awards show, Dexter Gordon, Bob Hoskins, and James Woods met by chance in the lobby lounge of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It was the first meeting between them for each of the three actors. Knowing they were probably not going to win that night, the three Best Actor nominees sat together at a table and drank a toast to Paul Newman (who was not present at the awards).
"Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" (from Little Shop of Horrors (1986)) is the first Best Original Song Nominee to contain profanity. As a result the lyrics were changed prior to the performance by Levi Stubbs.
This year was the beginning of the annual early morning announcement of the nominees. It had been tried before in the mid-50s but it was such a disaster that the idea had been dropped.
Michael Caine, who won Best Supporting Actor for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) was not present at the awards ceremony. He was in the Bahamas, due to filming commitments on Jaws: The Revenge (1987). As Caine explained to reporters who called him for comments on his Oscar win, "That stupid mechanical shark keeps breaking down, and we're all stuck here!"
Of the 20 nominated actors, winners Paul Newman and Michael Caine, and Nominee Maggie Smith were not in attendance. The next time a winner was not present was for the 2008 Academy Awards. The winner was the late Heath Ledger, who won for Dark Knight, which also starred Michael Caine.