Melinda Dillon, an actor with an expansive career, passed away at 83 in Los Angeles on January 9, 2023.
She was best known for her role as the mother of Ralphie Parker in “A Christmas Story” (1983).
Dillon was nominated twice for the best supporting actress Oscar; first for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) and then for “Absence of Malice” (1981).
She appeared in several other films, including “Bound for Glory” (1976), “Slap Shot” (1977), “The Prince of Tides” (1991), and “Magnolia” (1999).
Dillon was born in Arkansas and later moved to Chicago where she attended the Goodman School of Drama and worked at The Second City.
She performed with The Second City in the early 1960s and originated the role of Honey in the Broadway production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in 1962.
Dillon was married to actor Richard Libertini from 1963 to 1978 and had a son with him.
They met at The Second City and she recalled their first meeting in “The Second City,” a company history by Sheldon Patinkin.
Dillon and Libertini were both actors at The Second City when they met.
No cause of death was disclosed in the notice from her family.