American actress Melinda Ruth Dillon, known for her role in the films “Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) and “Slander” (1981), died on January 9 at the age of 83, her family announced Friday.
In Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” Dillon played Jillian Guiller, a single mother searching for her son, who is abducted by aliens.
The actress was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Spielberg’s film. Her in Sydney Pollack’s “The Slander,” she opposite Paul Newman, earning her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in 1982.
At the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards, Dillon lost to Venessa Redgrave for “Julia” (1978) and Maureen Stapleton for “Reds” (1982).
Early in her career, she was nominated for a Tony and won a Theater World Award in 1963 for her Broadway performance in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” by Edward Albee.
His film resume also includes Norman Jewison’s “FIST” (1978), Barbra Streisand’s “The Prince of Tides” (1991) and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia” (1999).
Born on October 13, 1939 in Hope, Arkansas, Melinda Ruth Dillon was married to the late actor Richard Libertini (1933-2016) from 1963 to 1978.
Source: TSF
