Yahoo Lifestyle Teri Garr, Star of Young Frankenstein, Tootsie and Mr. Mom, Dead at 79
Legendary comedic actress Teri Garr, known for her memorable supporting turns in films such as Young Frankenstein, Tootsie and Mr. Mom, died Tuesday following a long battle with multiple sclerosis. She was 79.
Garr died “surrounded by family and friends,” her spokesperson told People.
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Garr’s work in 1982’s Tootsie, which starred Dustin Hoffman, earned her an Oscar Nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She lost to co-star Jessica Lange.
Other notable film credits include Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and Martin Scorsese’s After Hours in 1985.
On the small screen, Garr played the estranged birth mother of Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe on Friends.
Additional TV credits include guest appearances on McCloud, M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, The Odd Couple, Maude, Barnaby Jones and The Andy Griffith Show.
Garr was also a late night TV mainstay, having made frequent appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman.
In Oct. 2002, Garr went public with her MS diagnosis after battling the disease in secret for years.
“Whatever this MS was, the industry wanted no part of it,” she wrote in her 2006 memoir Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood. “At first I was outraged. Whatever was going on in my body had been going on for years. It never got in the way of my work. Then I started thinking the job offers disappeared because I stunk as an actress. It was a tough trio: mysterious symptoms, my insecurities about my acting ability, and the reality of being an ‘aging’ actress.'”
Garr, who retired from acting in 2011, served as national ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
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