Teri Garr, who starred in Tootsie, Young Frankenstein and Friends, dies aged 79
29 October 2024, 19:49 | Updated: 30 October 2024, 00:10
Oscar-nominated actress Teri Garr, best known for her roles in Young Frankenstein and Tootsie, has died aged 79, US media reports.
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Garr died in Los Angeles on Tuesday due to complications from multiple sclerosis "surrounded by family and friends", her publicist Heidi Schaeffer said in a statement.
She first talked publicly about the chronic autoimmune disease in 2002 to raise awareness for others living with it. Five years later, she underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm.
Garr appeared in three episodes of Friends in 1997 and 1998 as Phoebe Abbot, the estranged birth mother of Lisa Kudrow's Phoebe.
She was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in 1982's Tootsie, starring opposite Dustin Hoffman, but lost out to Maureen Stapleton.
Her most famous role was playing Inga, a Transylvania local who becomes the assistant to Gene Wilder's Dr Frederick Frankenstein in Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy hit, Young Frankenstein.
Garr was born in Cleveland in 1944 to showbusiness parents.
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Her father, Eddie, was a vaudeville performer and actor who appeared on Broadway and her mother, Phyllis, had been a member of the Rockettes precision dance troupe.
After studying in Los Angeles, Garr moved to New York to pursue a career first in ballet and then in acting, studying at the famed Actor's Studio in Manhattan.
Garr got her break with bit parts in a number of 1960s Elvis Presley movies, including Viva Las Vegas and Roustabout.
