Sophia Michaels
Oscar-nominated actress Melinda Dillon has died. The A Christmas Story actress — who played Mother Parker in the beloved holiday film — died on Jan. 9 according to an obituary shared by her family, Rolling Stone confirmed. She was 83. No details were provided about her cause of death.
Throughout her career, Dillon was nominated twice for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress: first in 1977 for her role as Jillian in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and in 1981 for her portrayal of Teresa in Absence of Malice.
Two years after Absence of Malice, she played Mother Parker in the holiday classic, A Christmas Story. Among her filmography are movies like 1984’s Songwriter, 1990’s Captain America, and 1999’s Magnolia, which earned her a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Before her time onscreen, Dillon performed on Broadway for shows such as You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running. Her first film was The April Fools in 1969.
Dillon was born and raised in Arkansas, before moving across several miltary bases including one in Germany after her mom divorced and remarried, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Her career in the entertainment industry started after she filled in for Barbara Harris after she fell ill at Second City, while she was working as a coat check attendee,
“I had had the American dream — to go to New York and study with Lee Strasberg,” she told the New York Times in 1976. “I guess I just wasn’t prepared for it all to happen so quickly in New York. I’m not sophisticated; I hadn’t had any kind of cultural education, at all, so when it came to meeting people, and presenting any kind of ideas I might have to offer, I would be terrified.”
