Posted on 02/03/2023 5:37:49 PM PST by massmike
Melinda Dillon, who received supporting Oscar nominations for her turns in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Absence of Malice and portrayed the doting mom in the holiday perennial A Christmas Story, died Jan. 9, her family announced. She was 83.
In Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Dillon portrayed Jillian Guiler, the single mother who heads to Devils Tower with her next-door neighbor (Richard Dreyfuss) in search of her 3-year-old son, who’s been abducted by aliens through the kitchen doggy door.
Sydney Pollack’s Absence of Malice (1981) had her back with Slap Shot co-star Paul Newman, this time playing a Catholic woman who takes her own life after a reporter (Sally Field) writes a story about her abortion.
At the Oscars, Dillon lost out to Vanessa Redgrave of Julia in 1978 and to Maureen Stapleton of Reds in 1982.
Still, unlike those two, Dillon shows up every holiday season on TV rebroadcasts as the sweet mother of Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) and Randy (Ian Petrella) and wife of Darren McGavin’s Old Man Parker in A Christmas Story (1983), directed by Bob Clark.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
We lost Cindy Williams a few days ago.
RIP Ralphie’s Mom. Hopefully she’s “accidentally” breaking leg lamps in heaven.
Southern girl
The best mom
“Notafinga!”
I think that says Fragile honey.
Too young to go...
R.I.P.
RIP
I love that scene.
Big fan of the movie. Was at the house in Cleveland a few weeks ago and got to meet Zack Ward. She had the mom role nailed.
Yeah, Statue.
Did you put in an offer to buy the house?
It’s for sale.
Rip, Melinda Dillon. Those movies wouldn’t have been the same without her.
Thank you Melinda.
She gave a wonderful performance as Ralphie’s Mom in A Christmas Story.
RIP
She played that role to perfection. A very pretty and talented actress who will be missed, but who will live forever, or as long as there is Christmas.
She looked like Meg Ryan’s Mother.
she was so cute in “Christmas Story”.....she really stood out in that movie i thought...
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