Melinda Dillon

Known for Acting

10/13/1939

Hope, Arkansas, USA

Biography

Melinda Rose Dillon (October 13, 1939 - January 9, 2023) was a twice Oscar nominated American actress. She was best known for her roles in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Absence of Malice and the holiday classic A Christmas Story.

Known For (53 credits)

6.5

Movie

Hal

2019

Hal Ashby's obsessive genius led to an unprecedented string of Oscar®-winning classics, including Harold and Maude, Shampoo and Being There. But as contemporaries Coppola, Scorsese and Spielberg rose to blockbuster stardom in the 1980s, Ashby's uncompromising nature played out as a cautionary tale of art versus commerce.

6.5

Heartland

2007

Dr. Nathaniel Grant is a pioneering organ-transplant surgeon who takes risks that other doctors would not in order to save the lives of his patients. He works closely with his ex-wife, Kate Armstrong, an organ-donor coordinator with whom he has a volatile relationship. Grant's arrogance and willingness to perform risky procedures causes him to butt heads with the hospital administration. But his main focus is on his intense relationship with his job and his patients, often at the expense of his family.

7.2

Movie

Reign Over Me

2007

A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.

5.5

Movie

Adam & Steve

2005

Adam and Steve are two gay youths who have a one-night stand that ends embarrassingly. Nearly two decades later, Adam, now a Manhattan tour guide, and Steve, a psychiatrist, meet again -- but neither remembers the other from years before. The two begin dating, even playing matchmaker for their friends Michael and Rhonda, but their promising relationship hits a major snag when Adam and Steve finally recall their past connection.

6.3

Movie

Debating Robert Lee

2004

A group of jaded high school students sign up for a debate class taught by a tough, combative teacher from the Georgia Military Academy who teaches them that life is debate and DEBATE IS WAR.

9.3

The Lyon's Den

2003

John "Jack" Turner is a maverick scion from an American political dynasty, a "true believer," who must reconcile his passion for the purity of law in the morally ambiguous world he inhabits, in which no one is who they appear to be. Content with working in a small pro-bono law clinic in Washington, D.C. – at the urging of his more practical longtime friend and colleague, George Riley – Turner reluctantly accepts the position of managing partner in the sponsoring law firm of Lyon, LaCrosse, and Levine in order to save the clinic.

7.0

Movie

A Painted House

2003

A young boy, his family, and the migrant workers they hire to work their cotton farm struggle against difficult odds to raise and sell the crop. Meanwhile, the boy dreams of living in better conditions. However, with this particularly tough farming season, the boy learns that his challenges guide him in discovering who he really is.

5.9

Movie

Cowboy Up

2002

"Cowboy Up" is a celebration of the risk-taking, daredevil personalities of modern rodeo. In the world of professional bull riding, newcomer Ely Braxton (Marcus Thomas) is the craziest guy around; his brother Hank (Kiefer Sutherland) is a rodeo clown, and the two use each other to play up their acts. But love may be one thing that tears the brothers apart. When Ely falls for the rodeo's sweetheart (Daryl Hannah), Hank is filled with jealousy and hatred. The brothers try to come to grips with their differences, but the competition gets as fierce as the bulls in the ring.

The Making of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'

6.9

Movie

The Making of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'

2001

A documentary film on the making of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'

7.7

Movie

Magnolia

1999

On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.

7.9

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

1999

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.

7.5

Judging Amy

1999

Judging Amy is an American television drama that was telecast from September 19, 1999, through May 3, 2005, on CBS-TV. This TV series starred Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly. Its main character is a judge who serves in a family court, and in addition to the family-related cases that she adjudicates, many episodes of the show focus on her own experiences as a divorced mother, and on the experiences of her mother, a social worker who works in the field of child welfare. This series was based on the life experiences of Brenneman's mother.