Beloved Actress Teri Garr Passes Away At 79

TV & Film

Nov 4

Teri Garr passed away on October 29th, 2024, an actress, dancer, comedian, and all-round entertainer whose career spanned over fifty years. It was only natural that Teri Garr would end up in show business. She was born in 1944, the daughter of Vaudeville Comedian Eddie Garr and Rockette, Phyllis Garr.

Garr started working in movies in 1963 at the age of twenty, with a few uncredited roles dancing in the background of Elvis Priestley’s Fun in Acapulco, Viva Las Vegas, and Clambake. It seemed as if her big break had arrived when, five years later, Gene Roddenberry booked her on season two of Star Trek. Garr’s episode, Assignment: Earth, was pitched as a backdoor pilot/spin-off, but disappointingly, it was never made.

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Garr worked for three more years an extra until she was picked up as a regular on The Sonny and Cher Show. Garr was a triple threat on the variety show, singing, dancing, and performing in comedy skits. She soon became a familiar face in the prime-time slot, appearing on The New Dick Van Dyke Show, The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour, The Bob Newhart Show and Saturday Night Live.

When word got out that Young Frankenstein was casting, Garr was warned not to audition by her agent, that she was still too much of an unknown. But Mel Brooks didn’t seem to mind. “When I saw her, absolutely beautiful, I asked Wilder if she could act,”

More movies followed.

Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind earned Garr her first recognition (a Saturn Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress), and a young adult book adaption called The Black Stallion signed her for a two-film deal.

However, in 1982, Teri Garr was offered her most iconic part, Dustin Hoffman’s Tootsie. The movie received ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress, for Garr’s performance. Jessica Lang was the only person on the production to walk home with a gold statue (for Best Actress)

From 1983, things began to change. Teri describes in her memoir, Speedbumps: Flooring it Through Hollywood, how a ticking sensation began to spread through her body. She did not consult a doctor about it until 1999, putting it down to the usual strains and sprains associated with being a dancer. But she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Garr went on to become a spokesperson for America’s MS Society, fighting for better recognition of the condition. However, she kept on working and had a cameo in the popular series Friends as Phoebe’s mom.

Garr returned to the DC universe (She was a background actor in the 1966 Batman series) as the voice of Mary McGinnis in the Batman Beyond franchise. But she was forced to slow down when, in 2007, she underwent major surgery for a brain aneurysm. She tackled this like she had life, with grit and good humor. “I had to learn to walk again, to talk again and to think again, which I’m not even sure is necessary in Hollywood.”

Teri Gar sadly died at her home in LA due to complications from the disease that had plagued her half her life; she was 79 years old. Tributes have come in from all corners of Hollywood, including her onscreen daughter, Lisa Kudrow - “a comedic acting genius who was and is a huge influence on me, and I know I'm not alone in that."

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