LOS ANGELES (AP) — Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley films to co-star of such favorites as “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has died. She was 79.
Garr died Tuesday of a number of sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” stated publicist Heidi Schaeffer. Garr battled different well being issues lately, underwent an operation in January 2007 to restore an aneurysm.
The actor, who was generally credited as Terri, Terry or Terry Ann throughout her lengthy profession, appeared destined for present enterprise from her childhood.
Her father was Eddie Garr, a well known vaudeville comic; her mom was Phyllis Lind, one of many unique high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio Metropolis Music Corridor. Their daughter started dance classes at 6 and by 14 was dancing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet firms.
She was 16 when she joined the highway firm of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and as early as 1963 she started showing in bit elements in movies.
She recalled in a 1988 interview how she gained the “West Side Story” position. After being dropped from her first audition, she returned a day later in several garments and was accepted.
From there, the blonde, statuesque Garr discovered regular work dancing in films, and he or she appeared within the refrain of 9 Presley movies, together with “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout” and “Clambake.”
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She additionally appeared on quite a few tv reveals, together with “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music present “Shindig,” the rock live performance efficiency T.A.M.I. and a solid member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”
Her massive movie break got here as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in 1974’s Francis Ford Coppola thriller “The Conversation.” That led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who stated he would rent her for the position of Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant in 1974’s “Young Frankenstein” — if she might converse with a German accent.
“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr as soon as recalled.
The movie established her as a gifted comedy performer, with New Yorker movie critic Pauline Kael proclaiming her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on the screen.”
Her massive smile and off-center attraction helped land her roles in “Oh God!” reverse George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s spouse) and “Tootsie” by which she performed the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and learns that he has dressed up as a girl to revive his profession. (She additionally misplaced the supporting actress Oscar at that 12 months’s Academy Awards to Lange.)
Though greatest identified for comedy, Garr confirmed in such movies as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “The Black Stallion” and “The Escape Artist” that she might deal with drama equally nicely.
“I would like to play ‘Norma Rae’ and ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ but I never got the chance,” she as soon as stated, including she had turn out to be typecast as a comic book actress.
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She had a aptitude for spontaneous humor, typically taking part in David Letterman’s foil throughout visitor appearances on NBC’s “Late Night With David Letterman” early in its run.
Her appearances grew to become so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing, that for a time rumors cropped up that they have been romantically concerned. Years later, Letterman credited these early appearances with serving to make the present a success.
It was additionally throughout these years that Garr started to really feel “a little beeping or ticking” in her proper leg. It started in 1983 and ultimately unfold to her proper arm as nicely, however she felt she might dwell with it. By 1999 the signs had turn out to be so extreme that she consulted a health care provider. The prognosis: a number of sclerosis.
For 3 years Garr didn’t reveal her sickness.
“I was afraid that I wouldn’t get work,” she defined in a 2003 interview. “People hear MS and think, ‘Oh, my God, the person has two days to live.’”
After going public, she grew to become a spokeswoman for the Nationwide A number of Sclerosis Society, making humorous speeches to gatherings within the U.S. and Canada.
“You have to find your center and roll with the punches because that’s a hard thing to do: to have people pity you,” she commented in 2005. “Just trying to explain to people that I’m OK is tiresome.”
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She additionally continued to behave, showing on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “Greetings From Tucson,” “Life With Bonnie” and different TV reveals. She additionally had a quick recurring position on “Friends” within the Nineteen Nineties as Lisa Kudrow’s mom. After a number of failed romances, Garr married contractor John O’Neill in 1993. They adopted a daughter, Molly, earlier than divorcing in 1996.
In her 2005 autobiography, “Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood,” Garr defined her choice to not talk about her age.
“My mother taught me that showbiz people never tell their real ages. She never revealed hers or my father’s,” she wrote. California voting registration information gave her date of start as Dec. 11, 1947.
She stated she was born in Los Angeles, though most reference books record Lakewood, Ohio. As her father’s profession waned, the household, together with Teri’s two older brothers, lived with family members within the Midwest and East.
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The Garrs ultimately moved again to California, settling within the San Fernando Valley, the place Teri was graduated from North Hollywood Excessive College and studied speech and drama for 2 years at California State College, Northridge.
Garr recalled in 1988 what her father had advised his youngsters about pursuing a profession in Hollywood.
“Don’t be in this business,” he advised them. “It’s the lowest. It’s humiliating to people.”
Related Press reporter Mar Kennedy contributed to this report.