Though best known for her supporting performances in films, Dillon began as an
improvisational comedian and stage actress. Recalling her performance as Sonya in a 1961 student production of
Chekhov's
Uncle Vanya,
Alan Schneider wrote:What distinguished and made the whole attempt worthwhile for me was casting the role of Sonya with a young actress named Linda Dillon, who was a senior acting student at Goodman as well as a hanger-on with a Second City troupe that included two young performers named
Barbara Harris and
Alan Arkin. During our tryouts, John Reich, then the
Goodman Theatre's artistic director, had seriously tried to discourage me from using Linda. He admitted her talent but warned me that she was highly volatile and completely unpredictable as an actress. He had found another actress whom he found much more suitable for Sonya. I insisted on using Linda, no matter the consequences. I was fascinated by the combination of her fragility and sensuality, intrigued with the unconventional way in which she was able to make a line seem utterly spontaneous, and impressed with her emotional range and richness. During our four weeks of rehearsal [...], I wound up alternately adoring and hating Linda. She always did too much and yet not enough. She was never the same twice in a given scene, even when she had found something wonderful last time. She was always wanting to quit the cast or leave school or kill herself. And yet, at the same time, I felt she was extraordinary, the most talented young actress I'd ever worked with, the potential peer of
Geraldine Page and perhaps even
Kim Stanley. I was sure she'd be a big star one day, and I wanted to be with her when that happened. Dillon's first major role was as Honey in the original 1962
Broadway production of
Edward Albee's ''
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. At the time of her death, she was the last surviving cast member of the original production. In addition, she also appeared in You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running and Paul Sill's Story Theatre''. In 1959, she acted in
The Cry of Jazz, a short film dealing with jazz music and
Black culture. Dillon's first feature film was
The April Fools in 1969. She also worked in television, including a guest-starring role in 1969 on an episode of the TV series
Bonanza titled "A Lawman's Lot Is Not a Happy One" (Season 11). She co-starred with
David Carradine in the 1976
Woody Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory and was nominated in the Best Female Acting Debut category of the
Golden Globe for her role as Memphis Sue. The following year she was nominated for a
Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the role of a mother whose child is abducted by aliens in
Steven Spielberg's
Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That same year, she made an uncredited cameo in
The Muppet Movie and had a role in the comedy
Slap Shot with
Paul Newman. Four years later, Dillon was again nominated for a
Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as a suicidal teacher in
Absence of Malice in 1981, working again with Newman. Dillon was perhaps best known for her role as the mother of Ralphie and Randy in
Bob Clark's 1983 movie
A Christmas Story. The film was based on a series of short stories and novels written by
Jean Shepherd about young Ralphie Parker (played by
Peter Billingsley) and his quest for a
Red Ryder BB gun from
Santa Claus. She was replaced by
Julie Hagerty in the 2022 direct sequel
A Christmas Story Christmas. According to Peter Billingsley, she was retired from acting at that time, but gave her full support on the project. Four years later, Dillon co-starred with
John Lithgow in the
Bigfoot comedy
Harry and the Hendersons. She continued to be active in stage and film throughout the 1990s, taking roles in the superhero film
Captain America, the
Barbra Streisand drama
The Prince of Tides, the low-budget
Lou Diamond Phillips thriller
Sioux City, the comedy
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, and the drama
How to Make an American Quilt. In 1999, she appeared in
Magnolia, directed by
Paul Thomas Anderson, as Rose Gator, the wife of terminally ill television game-show host Jimmy Gator (
Philip Baker Hall). In 2005, she guest-starred in the episode of
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit titled "Blood". Dillon's last major acting roles were in the 2007 film
Reign Over Me and in three episodes of the short-lived
TNT medical drama Heartland. ==Personal life and death==