Tedde Moore, Miss Shields in 'A Christmas Story,' Dies at 79
Tedde Moore, the Canadian actress who played the stern but affectionate teacher Miss Shields in the 1983 holiday classic A Christmas Story, has died at 79. A post on her Facebook page announced that she passed away on 5 August under sunny skies overlooking Fairy Lake in Huntsville, Ontario, surrounded by family. No cause of death was given (The Hollywood Reporter).
Born on 11 April 1947, Moore came from one of Canada's most storied theatrical families. Her grandmother was Dora Mavor Moore, a pioneer of Canadian theatre whose name lives on in the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Her father, Mavor Moore, was a fixture of Canadian stage and radio, best known for playing the title role in a 1982 radio adaptation of Nero Wolfe (The Hollywood Reporter).
Moore trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, graduating in 1967 with the Principal's Medal of Honor. Her professional stage debut followed almost immediately: she starred opposite Christopher Walken in the Stratford Festival production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Hollywood Reporter).
The role that fixed her in popular memory arrived in 1983. In A Christmas Story, directed by Bob Clark, Moore's Miss Shields hands young Ralphie Parker — played by Peter Billingsley — a poor grade on his essay about the Red Ryder BB gun he desperately wants for Christmas. She also delivers the film's most-quoted warning: that Ralphie will shoot his eye out. Moore reprised the role a decade later in My Summer Story (1994), a sequel drawn from the same Jean Shepherd stories (The Hollywood Reporter).
Her film and television career in Canada was prolific. Moore earned a Genie Award nomination — the Genies, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, honoured Canadian film — for best performance by an actress in a supporting role. Her television credits ranged from Friday the 13th: The Series and RoboCop: Prime Directives to Odyssey 5 and This Is Wonderland. She played Mrs. Claus in the 2011 TV movie Mistletoe Over Manhattan and Nanny Shaw in the miniseries The Kennedys. According to IMDb, her final screen credit was the 2017 TV movie Magical Christmas Ornaments (The Hollywood Reporter).
Moore's family carried the creative lineage forward in directions both expected and surprising. With the Canadian film and television director Donald Shebib, she had two children. Their daughter Suzanna was a child actor who became a teacher. Their son Noah, also a child actor, grew up to become the Grammy-winning music producer known as "40" — a longtime collaborator of Drake who produced the hits Hold On, We're Going Home, One Dance, God's Plan, Toosie Slide and Take Care. Moore also had a daughter, Zoë, from a previous relationship with actor Patrick Christopher Carter, and raised a foster daughter, Chaunce Drury (The Hollywood Reporter).
Mother and son shared more than a profession. Noah was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2007. Moore received the same diagnosis in 2009 (The Hollywood Reporter).
Every December, A Christmas Story returns to screens across North America, and with it the image of a teacher in a 1940s classroom who told a boy his fantasy was dangerous. Moore gave that small role a warmth that outlasted the grade on Ralphie's paper.
