Teri Garr, Oscar-nominated star of Tootsie and Young Frankenstein, dies at 79
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Actress Teri Garr died in Los Angeles from complications of multiple sclerosis on Oct 29.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LOS ANGELES – Academy Award-nominated American actress Teri Garr (right), whose sunny personality lit up the screen in films such as Young Frankenstein (1974) and Tootsie (1982), died on Oct 29 at age 79.
Garr, who earned an Oscar nomination for her role opposite American actor Dustin Hoffman in the gender-swop comedy Tootsie, died in Los Angeles from complications of multiple sclerosis (MS), publicist Heidi Schaeffer said.
Garr disclosed in 2002 that she had been diagnosed with MS after experiencing symptoms for some two decades. She became an advocate for MS research and treatment. In 2007, she underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm and used a wheelchair for a time.
“I had to learn to walk again, to talk again and to think again, which I’m not even sure is necessary in Hollywood,” she joked in an interview with Reuters in 2008.
Teri Ann Garr was born on Dec 11, 1944, in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, to show-business parents. Her father Eddie was a vaudeville performer and actor who appeared on Broadway, and her mother Phyllis danced at New York’s Radio City Music Hall as one of the Rockettes.
After attending college in Los Angeles, Garr moved to New York City to pursue a career in ballet and then in acting, studying at the famed Actors Studio in Manhattan.
Some of her earliest credits included work as a background dancer in American rock ’n’ roll legend Elvis Presley’s film Viva Las Vegas (1964).
After roles on TV shows such as Star Trek (1966 to 1969) and Batman (1966 to 1968), Garr was cast by American director Mel Brooks as a German laboratory assistant in Young Frankenstein.
“Her humour and lively spirit made the Young Frankenstein set a pleasure to work on,” Brooks, 98, wrote on X on Oct 29. “Her ‘German’ accent had us all in stitches. She will be greatly missed.”
American actor Michael Keaton, who starred with Garr in Mr Mom (1983), also paid tribute on social media.
“Forget about how great she was as an actress and comedienne. She was a wonderful woman,” Keaton, 73, said on Instagram. “Go back and watch her comedic work – man, was she great.”
“Loved her so much,” wrote American comedian Steve Martin, 79, who was a cast member with Garr on variety show The Ken Berry Wow Show (1972).
Film-maker and comedian Mel Brooks (left) and late actress Cloris Leachman (right) greeting actress Teri Garr (centre) at a 40th-anniversary screening of Young Frankenstein in Beverly Hills, California, in 2014.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Outside of comedy, Garr also had memorable drama roles. For Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977), she played the wife of a man (Richard Dreyfuss) obsessed with unidentified flying objects in American director Steven Spielberg’s science-fiction classic.
In 1993, after almost two decades of playing wives and mothers, Garr married Mr John O’Neil, a building contractor. They divorced in 1996.
Her survivors include her daughter Molly O’Neil and a grandson.
Garr said her sense of humour helped her persevere through health challenges. “It’s absolutely critical,” she told Reuters. “A sense of humour and attitude is the most important thing in everything.” REUTERS, NYTIMES
