Melinda Dillion, an actress best known for playing Ralphie’s mother in A Christmas Story and a leading actress in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, has died at the age of 83. The actress was also nominated for two Oscars and earned a Tony nomination for a production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
News of her death comes via her family (per The Hollywood Reporter), who shared that the actress died on January 9, 2023. The actress had been retired from acting, with her final appearance on screen being during a 2007 guest spot on the medical drama, Heartland.
The actress leaves behind a large body of work, having over 60 credits in movies and television dating back over sixty years. Also among her memorable roles is her role as playing Rose Gator in Magnolia alongside Tom Cruise and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Dillon was also Nancy Henderson in 1987 comedy, Harry and the Hendersons.
The actress was born on October 13, 1939 and was raised in Arkansas. Melissa Dillon broke out into acting in a big way when she played Honey in her 1962 Broadway debut, a production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Her first role in a feature film was the 1969 Jack Lemmon-led romantic comedy, The April Fools. At the age of 37, the actress was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Female Acting Debut in the 1976 Woody Guthrie biopic, Bound for Glory.
1977 was a particularly big year for the actress considering she starred in Steven Spielberg’s science fiction epic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, playing the mother of a three-year-old child who gets abducted by aliens. Also in 1977, the actress was part of Paul Newman ice hockey movie, Slap Shot. Dillon earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role in Close Encounters, before being considered for the same golden trophy once more for 1981’s Absence of Malice, also with Paul Newman.
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