Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Actor Melinda Dillon died Jan. 9 according to an obituary submitted to the Neptune Society cremation facility by the Dillon family. The Hollywood Reporter was the first to post the news on Friday. Dillon was 83.
Dillon has screen credits dating back to 1963, and even one earlier short film in 1959. She endeared herself to a generation of young fans as Ralphie Parker's mother in A Christmas Story, and the mother whose child is abducted by aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.