Melinda Dillon is DEAD TO ME

She lived. She took up space. She no longer lives.

She was Mother Parker in a Christmas Story

Let the 80000 posts about her perm in A Christmas Story commence!

She was Suzanne in SLAPSHOT in bed naked with Paul Newman.....her big naked tits high and perky.

She told him she hadn't slept with a man since her divorce from one of Newman's hockey rivals.....he couldn't believe it - so she admitted since her divorce she had only slept with other women.

Newman was in game and skated around her husband and said: "Suzanne likes PUSSY!"

Fights and penalties......

Received her second Oscar nod for Absence of Malice

I didn't realize that a) she was as old as she is (I'm 54, kind of thought of her as around 20 years older than me) and b) she was the mother on A Christmas Story!!

Did she shoot her eye out?

She was the heart and soul of Close Encounters, one of my favorite movies. I haven’t thought about her in ages, but I’m sorry she’s gone.

She truly was, R8. I couldn’t agree more. So sorry to hear this. RIP, Melinda.

She originated the role of Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; her Broadway debut

No! Not Ralphie’s mom!

Oh, Fudge!

Heartbreakingly, her arc in Absence of Malice isn't especially dated.

RIP, Ms. Dillon. May you meet up with Erin Moran at the big anachronistic perm salon in the sky.

She was Honey in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf!

Did Barbra cut out a lot of her scenes in PRINCE OF TIDES? I think she did. Melinda was a good character actress.

That explains why she didn't take part in the Christmas Story remake. She was probably too ill to participate.

Does anyone know if she ever played Honey in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

She stole makeup

In You'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again, Julia Phillips wrote that during the making of Close Encounters, Melinda had a violent ex-boyfriend stalking her.

But apparently, she was still married to Richard Libertini until 1978, and Close Encounters was filmed in '76.

I wonder where the truth lies?

83 is a good long life

R20 The truth lies up your nose, Julia.

I'll always remember her as the mother in "A Christmas Story." She, and Darren McGavin, were perfect in that movie.

She had those surprise perfect titties in Slap Shot. It wouldn't be until Anne Hathaway in Brokeback Mountain that surprise tittie perfection was reached. And Anne's literally paled next to Melinda's

People forget she was in PT Anderson's "Magnolia," it's kind of a background role for most of the movie but she gets a couple juicy scenes toward the end. She plays Philip Baker Hall's wife.

The kid who played her son in "Close Encounters."

[quote] she was the mother on A Christmas Story!!

Oh, dear.

Her departure is deeply mourned by her sons Matt and Kevin.

It was strange to see that she was 83, since I see her multiple times every year around Christimas and she's always looks in her mid-30s there (though actually in her 40s). Perm or no perm, she was wonderful in a Christmas story and her character reminds me so much of my own mom (including the perm, though her's was in the 1980s)

Melinda's husband is Richard Libertini is wearing the shirt with a star on it

Guffey is still cute. He’s aging well.

Richard was quite handsome in his younger days

And Valerie Harper's ex-husband is top right @ R30

[quote] you weren't paying attention. She was actually more subdued in that audition than in the movie. She just hit all the right notes.

Boy, do LOVE Carrie Fisher. But the only "notes" she hit were bitchy ones.

I wonder if Cary Guffey, the unbelievably cute little boy who played Barry in Close Encounters, remembers Melinda at all? He was only three when they filmed.

Oops, wrong thread. It belongs in the Cindy Williams memorial thread.

[Quote]I'll always remember her as the mother in "A Christmas Story." She, and Darren McGavin, were perfect in that movie.

R23, I love the scene between the two of them at the end of the movie, when she shuts off the lights and comes to sit by him as they watch the snow in the dark, and he strokes her back. Such simple gestures to show the love between them.

Apparently, her script didn't contain the bit that the owner of the Chinese restauran would chop the head off the duck, so her shriek is genuine.

R33, is he straight?

Ugh, R33, I have always *HAAAAATED* Richard Schaal. Hated, hated, hated. Anytime I saw his name in the guest credits, or saw him wandering through a scene, I bailed.

He is one odd bird I never liked, thought was ugly, and wanted desperately to wring that odd bird's neck.

Thank you for sharing, r39.

You're most sincerely welcome, R40.

r39=Valerie Harper

[quote]R10 She originated the role of Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; her Broadway debut

Well, this sounds hellish:

—————

[italic]Dillon left the intense play after nine months and spent time in a psychiatric hospital. “I was in Virginia Woolf, and I just went crazy; it was really that simple,” she said in a 1976 interview. “I think it was the way I was living; the play was so long and the actors’ union wouldn’t let us play the matinee. We had to have a whole different cast for that, but I was called in to do it many, many times because the gal would get sick. I would do it three hours in the afternoon, then study with Lee Strasberg for two hours, and do the play three hours at night.”

She played Tracey Ullman’s daughter years ago.

One of my favorite guilty-pleasure 80s movies is Staying Together, in which Melinda plays mother to three strapping young boys played by Tim Quill, Dermot Mulroney and Sean Astin. DL faves Daphne Zuniga, Stockard Channing and Dinah Manoff are also in it, and it was directed by Lee Grant. Melinda sings the '40s standard "While We're Young" on the soundtrack.

Songs were made to sing,

While we're young.

Every day is Spring,

While we're young.

RIP Melinda.

And thank you R4, for the wonderful description of that classic film. Long live Slapshot.

What is with the recent trend of being coy about the cause of death? Are we back in the Nineteenth Century where cancer, etc. is considered too awful to name?

She starred in one of my favorite trashy TV movies called Shattered Innocence about a girl who runs off with her boyfriend and ends up becoming a porn star. Dillon plays the girl’s mother and tries to bring some class to the proceedings but can’t rise above the exploitative material. Jenilee Harrison lookalike Jonna Lee plays the runaway and makes Harrison look like an Academy Award level actress.

She’s now dining at the Chop Suey Palace in the great beyond.

R5- It’s just so retarded. In Absence Of Malice which was set in the present- her hair would have been quite appropriate for the 1940’s . Yet in the 1940’s movie A Christmas 🎄 Story- it was so permed and frizzed and so 1980’s looking and SO period INappropriate.

I hope Matt Dillon is okay after losing his mother so suddenly.

[quote]she was the mother on A Christmas Story!!

Ahem.

[quote]We had to have a whole different cast for that, but I was called in to do it many, many times because the gal would get sick.

R26 he grew up to be less goofy looking than I thought he would. Good for him!

I’m not sure if you’re being willfully obtuse, but if not, you must not be aware of how so many salivate over learning of any cause of death that they might link to the COVID vaccine, or to COVID. Because people are shamelessly horrible now.

Sorry, R55 was for R47.

A very natural actress- always entirely believable.

R46 you are most welcome......yes SLAPSHOT is so funny and never gets old.....I'm only sad that some of the music in the DVD and television had to be changed because of rights issues....

I worked for a newspaper whose policy was to require a cause of death in all staff-written obits. Paid death notices, which are what most obits seem to be these days, were exempt. However, the paper didn't require a cause of death if the deceased was 80 or older.

Not knowing the cause of death is unsettling. An ex of mine died early in the pandemic. He was a little reclusive, though he founded led an arts organization. Friends pieced together that he was visiting his parents (to whom he as closeted) and that it was not Covid, but no one could figure out what happened.

Apart from that, Melinda Dillon was such a down to earth actress who exuded warmth and charm. She hadn’t worked for a long time, but I am sad she is gone.

This scene in particular is going to be extra melancholy to watch next Christmas knowing that Melinda and Darren are both gone now.

[quote]However, the paper didn't require a cause of death if the deceased was 80 or older.

Even if they were fighting an oil-rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico?

[quote]R50 In Absence Of Malice - which was set in the present - her hair would have been quite appropriate for the 1940s. Yet in the 1940s movie A Christmas 🎄 Story it was so permed and frizzed and so 1980’s looking and SO period INappropriate.

Agreed, of course.

The admonishments here that we should simply ignore all this (as if such a thing were POSSIBLE!!) are outrageous.

Watch her every year in A Christmas Story, sad that she’s no longer with us. She will be remembered.

Regarding the famous abduction scene in "Close Encounters," Melinda said when they started shooting the scene and everything started going crazy, she was terrified that the flying knives "might hit the baby" (meaning Cary Guffey). Guffey, for his part, recalled it as being very funny to him. He said his mother was on the other side of the doggy door and that's whose arm you can ever so barely see pulling him through.

Here is the interview (go to 3:47 for Melinda):

[48] I remember that movie. It was based on a true story, and there's a pretty good PBS Frontline about it.

[quote] it was so permed and frizzed and so 1980’s looking and SO period INappropriate.

Actually I thought her hair looked like the unruly, untamed, naturally curly/frizzy hair of a woman did didn't have the time or means to go to the beauty parlor to have it smoothed and straightened.

I remember watching this TV movie as a kid. She played the daughter of Jimmy Stewart and Bette Davis.

[quote]R68 I thought her hair looked like the unruly, untamed, naturally curly/frizzy hair of a woman who didn't have the time or means to go to the beauty parlor to have it smoothed and straightened

That’s because you’re a whore.

#Truth

Susan Dey, Melinda is dead, goddammit!

Melinda Dillon was superb in 'The Prince of Tides."

Streisand posted on Twitter that Melinda was a joy to direct.

Melinda Dillon was such a great actress, with a wonderful delicacy about her. She was a delight to direct in Prince of Tides. May she rest in peace.

Thanks, r67. I knew it was inspired by a true story but didn’t really know details.

I always liked her. A good actress that always added to whatever she was in.

Here she is in what was most likely her last public appearance in December 2018, a 35th anniversary event for A Christmas Story.

She had a cute throwaway cameo in “Tracey Takes On…” as Desiree Romaine, Ruby’s oft-mentioned daughter who loved Black men and stole from the morgue where she worked.

Nice actress.

The Ruby sketch.

[quote]R72 Streisand posted on Twitter that Melinda was a joy to direct.

Then she cut her role to shreds.

Was she the one in that movie with a kid, a car and a dog and the other three all out acted her?

Barbra cut Melinda's role but not Lowenstein's nails.

[quote]Was she the one in that movie with a kid, a car and a dog and the other three all out acted her?

That was Cujo.

Dee Wallace Stone.

Were they doppelgängers?

To a degree. They were both B level, somewhat blunt faced blondes.

[quote]Then she cut her role to shreds.

I feel her pain.

R58, which songs were substituted?

She was terrific in “Absence of Malice”. Her scene picking up her neighbor’s’ newspapers is haunting.

R86 that’s the one thing I remember about AOM. Wonderful actress. It’s too bad she apparently wasn’t well enough to do the Christmas Story sequel last year. It would’ve been a perfect end to her career.