CELEBRITY NEWS

Teri Garr, Tootsie and Young Frankenstein Star, Dies at 79

Garr, who received an Oscar nomination for her role in 'Tootsie,' revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2002

Teri Garr acted widely in film and television, with over 140 credits. She was most famous for her comedic work in movies like 1974’s Young Frankenstein and 1982’s Tootsie, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2002, Garr revealed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Garr died Tuesday of the disease “surrounded by family and friends,” publicist Heidi Schaeffer told PEOPLE.

Garr was born in Ohio in 1944. Both her parents worked in show business: Her father was a vaudeville performer, while her mother was a Rockette who eventually worked in costume production. The family, which also included her two older brothers, moved to New Jersey before settling in Los Angeles. Garr’s father died when she was 11.

American actress Teri Garr wearing a low-cut dress, circa 1975.
Teri Garr in 1975.Archive Photos/Getty

“She put two kids through school,” Garr told the Los Angeles Times of her mom in 2008. “I have one brother who is a surgeon, there’s me, and my other brother builds boats. She was in wardrobe. She was a costumer at the studio. She would always say, ‘We’re still alive. . . .’”

Read Also: Los Angeles Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela dies at age 63

Garr started training as a dancer, with an emphasis on ballet. She dropped out of college to move to New York to focus on acting, where she studied at the Actors Studio and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.

Actors Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman and Teri Garr in a scene from the movie 'Young Frankenstein', 1974.
Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman and Teri Garr in ‘Young Frankenstein.’. 

Her earliest projects allowed her to use her dancing skills. She appeared in six movies starring Elvis Presley, including 1964’s Viva Las Vegas. She also appeared on TV variety shows as a dancer.

“I got sick and fed up of dancing in the chorus,” she told Roger Ebert in 1980. “I trained for 10 years. I finally asked myself, ‘Why am I not in the front? I didn’t study all those years to be in the back and get no money.’”

She continued, “But I was shy and sweet. So I started going to the shrink and I learned how to talk to people. Directors would tell me, ‘We want you to play a character a little less complex than you are.’ Yeah, sure. What they mean is, ‘You’re playing a dummy.'”

Her first speaking role came in the The Monkees 1968 film Head. It was written by Jack Nicholson, whom she’d met in acting class. That same year, she appeared in an episode of Star Trek, “Assignment: Earth,” which was her first major speaking role. She also became a regular on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1972.
Soon Garr began to find major success. In 1974, she appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s thriller The Conversation. That same year, she starred in the Mel Brooks horror comedy Young Frankenstein as Inga, Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant — a role she secured with some help from her mom.
“My mother was the wardrobe woman on Young Frankenstein,” she told PBS in 2012. “I asked her if they’d finished casting, and she said she didn’t know.” Garr asked her agent to get her an audition, and after four rounds of auditions, she was cast. “It was unbelievable.” Her time on Sonny & Cher helped her nail the role. “I got the German accent from Cher’s wig lady,” she revealed.

Three years later, she starred in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which let her flex her dramatic skills. Then in 1982, she starred alongside Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. Film critic Pauline Kael called Garr “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on the screen.” She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the film, but lost to her Tootsie costar Jessica Lange.

Garr’s other major film roles at the time included 1981’s One From the Heart, 1983’s Mr. Mom, 1985’s After Hours and 1992’s Mom and Dad Save the World. But in a comedy world that was dominated by men, Garr had to push for more depth in her roles; she wasn’t always successful.

“I tried to make the character a little more real,” she told The Washington Post in 1983 about her part in Mr. Mom. “And they stopped me dead in my tracks. You don’t have to have too much of a brain in this business to realize that the only way you’ll ever get to do anything that you really want to do is to become a director.”

Garr married John O’Neil in 1993. Together they adopted daughter Molly. The couple split in 1996.

She is survived by her daughter Molly O’Neil, 30, and grandson Tyryn, 6.

Read Complete Source From The People.com


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