Melinda Dillon, a two-time Oscar nominee best known for the movies A Christmas Story and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, has died at 83.
The Dillon family shared on the cremation website for the Neptune Society’s Long Beach location an obituary honoring her and revealing that she passed away in Los Angeles weeks ago on Jan. 9.
No cause of death was given.
Dillon goes down in movie history as America’s movie mom. She famously played Ralphie’s mother, Mrs. Parker, in A Christmas Story in 1983 and the film remains an annual holiday tradition.
While Dillon had retired from acting in 2007, many A Christmas Story fans wondered why she did not reprise her iconic mom role in the HBO Max reboot A Christmas Story Christmas. She was replaced by actress Julie Hagerty in the sequel late last year.
She starred in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and Sydney Pollack’s 1981 thriller Absence of Malice, scoring two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress.
“Melinda was generous of spirit and lent such kindness to the character she played in ‘Close Encounters’ … We will all miss her,” Spielberg said in a statement.
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She received other awards for her theater work including a Tony nomination for her performance in Broadway’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. She further accrued many theater credits in the late 1960’s.
Dillon starred in numerous other films including Bound for Glory, Slap Shot, Harry and the Hendersons, Captain America, Nightbreaker, The Prince of Tides, and Magnolia.
