By Cynthia Charlene Greason

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Terry Ann Garr (December 11, 1944 – October 29, 2024), known as Teri Garr, was an American actress. She frequently appeared in comedic roles throughout her career, which spanned four decades and includes over 140 credits in film and television. Her accolades include an Academy Award nomination, a BAFTA Award nomination, and a National Board of Review Award.

Garr was raised primarily in North Hollywood, California. She is the third child of a comedic-actor father and a studio costumer mother. In her youth, Garr trained in ballet and other forms of dance. She began her career as a teenager with small roles in television and film in the early 1960s, including appearances as a dancer in six Elvis Presley musicals. After spending two years attending college, Garr left Los Angeles, and studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City. Her self-described “big break” as an actress was landing a role in the 1968 Star Trek episode “Assignment: Earth” after which she said, “I finally started to get real acting work.”

Garr gained prominence for her roles in Francis Ford Coppola‘s thriller The Conversation (1974), Mel Brooks‘s comedy Young Frankenstein (1974), and Steven Spielberg‘s science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). She earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the Sydney Pollack comedy Tootsie (1982). She reunited with Coppola in a role in his musical One from the Heart (1982), starred opposite Michael Keaton in the family film Mr. Mom (1983), and acted in Martin Scorsese‘s black comedy After Hours (1985).

Garr’s quick wit and charming banter made her a sought-after guest on late-night shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman. In the 1990s, she appeared in two films by Robert Altman: The Player (1992) and Prêt-à-Porter (1994), and in Dumb and Dumber (1994), followed by supporting roles in Michael (1996) and Ghost World (2001). She also appeared on television as Phoebe Abbott in three episodes of the sitcom Friends (1997–98). In 2002, Garr announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the symptoms of which had affected her ability to perform beginning in the 1990s. She retired from acting in 2011.

Garr died from complications of multiple sclerosis at her home in Los Angeles on October 29, 2024, at the age of 79.