‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Tootsie’ Actress Teri Garr Dies at 79 – National
Teri Garr, the offbeat comedy actor who went from being a background dancer in Elvis Presley films to co-starring in favorites such as Young Frankenstein And Tootsiedied. She was 79 years old.
Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” publicist Heidi Schaeffer said. Garr has battled other health issues in recent years and underwent surgery in January 2007 to repair an aneurysm.
Fans took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes.” I couldn’t have loved him more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul said: “Never the star, but always brilliant. She improved everything she was in.
The actor, sometimes credited as Terri, Terry or Terry Ann during his long career, seemed destined for show business from childhood.
His father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comedian; her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the first Rockettes of New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter started dance lessons at age 6, and by 14 she was dancing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies.
She was 16 when she joined the road company of West Side History in Los Angeles, and by 1963 she began appearing in small roles in films.
She recalled in a 1988 interview how she won the West Side History role. After being excluded from her first audition, she returned a day later in different clothes and was accepted.
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From there, the statuesque, blonde Garr found regular work dancing in films and she appeared in the chorus of nine Presley films, including Live Las Vegas, Tank Top And Clambake.
She has also appeared in numerous television shows, including Star Trek, Dr Kildare And Batmanand was a featured dancer on the rock’n’roll music show Fiestathe TAMI rock concert and an actor from Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.
Her big film break came as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller. The conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who said he would hire her for the role of Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant in 1974. Young Frankenstein – if she could speak with a German accent.
“Cher had this German girl, Renata, who made wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once recalled.
The film established her as a talented actress, with New York film critic Pauline Kael proclaiming her “the funniest giddy neurotic lady on the screen”.
Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land her roles in Oh my God ! against George Burns and John Denver, Mr. Mom (as the wife of Michael Keaton) and Tootsie in which she plays the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and learns that he disguised himself as a woman to revive his career. (She also lost the supporting actress Oscar at that year’s Academy Awards to Lange.)
Although best known for his comedy, Garr has appeared in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The black stallion And The escape artist that she could handle drama just as well.
“I would like to play Norma Rae And Sophie’s choicebut I never had the chance,” she once said, adding that she had become a comic actress.
She had a gift for spontaneous humor, often playing the role of David Letterman during appearances on NBC. Late Night with David Letterman at the start of his race.
His appearances became so frequent and their good-natured bickering so convincing that, for a time, rumors circulated that they were romantically involved. Years later, Letterman credited these early appearances with helping make the show a success.
It was also during these years that Garr began to feel “a little beeping or ticking” in his right leg. It started in 1983 and eventually spread to her right arm, but she felt she could live with it. By 1999, the symptoms had become so severe that she sought medical attention. The diagnosis: multiple sclerosis.
For three years, Garr did not reveal his illness.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t find a job,” she explained in a 2003 interview. “People hear about MS and think, ‘Oh, my God, this person only has two days to live. »
After going public, she became a spokesperson for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving humorous speeches at rallies across the United States and Canada.
“You have to find your center and roll with the punches because it’s a difficult thing to do: to be pitied by people,” she commented in 2005. “Just trying to explain to people that I’m fine is tiring. “
She also continued to act, appearing on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Greetings from Tucson, Life with Bonnie and other TV shows. She also had a brief recurring role in Friends in the 1990s as Lisa Kudrow’s mother. After several failed romances, Garr married entrepreneur John O’Neill in 1993. They adopted a daughter, Molly, before divorcing in 1996.
In his 2005 autobiography, Speedbumps: a journey through HollywoodGarr explained his decision not to discuss his age.
“My mother taught me that people in showbiz never reveal their real age. She never revealed hers or my father’s,” she wrote.
She said she was born in Los Angeles, although most reference works list Lakewood, Ohio. As her father’s career declined, the family, including Teri’s two older brothers, lived with relatives in the Midwest and East.
The Garrs eventually returned to California, settling in the San Fernando Valley, where Teri graduated from North Hollywood High School and studied speech and drama for two years at California State University, in Northridge.
Garr recalled in 1988 what his father told his children about pursuing a career in Hollywood.
“Don’t go into this business,” he told them. “It’s the lowest. It’s humiliating for people.
Garr is survived by his daughter, Molly O’Neil, and a grandson, Tyryn.
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AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy contributed to this report.
