Teri Garr

Teri Garr
Garr in the early 1980s
Born
Terry Ann Garr

(1944-12-11)December 11, 1944
Los Angeles, California, U.S.[a]
DiedOctober 29, 2024(2024-10-29) (aged 79)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater
OccupationActress
Years active1963–2011
Spouse
John O'Neil
​
​
(m. 1993; div. 1996)​
Partners
Children1

Terry Ann Garr (December 11, 1944 – October 29, 2024), known as Teri Garr, was an American actress. Known for her comedic roles in film and television in the 1970s and 1980s,[5][6] she often played women struggling to cope with the life-changing experiences of their husbands, children or boyfriends. She received nominations for an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her performance in Tootsie (1982), playing a struggling actress who loses the soap opera role of a female hospital administrator to her male friend and acting coach.

Garr was raised primarily in North Hollywood, California. She was the third child of a comedic-actor father and a studio costumier 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 nine Elvis Presley musicals.[4] After spending two years attending college, Garr left Los Angeles and studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City. She had her breakthrough appearing in the episode Assignment: Earth of Star Trek in 1968.[7]: 61–64 

After gaining attention for her 1974 roles in Francis Ford Coppola's thriller The Conversation and Mel Brooks's comedy horror Young Frankenstein, Garr became increasingly successful with major roles in Carl Reiner's comedy Oh, God! and Steven Spielberg's science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (both 1977) and The Black Stallion (1979). In the 1980s, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her comedic role as an acting student in Sydney Pollack's romantic comedy Tootsie, and enjoyed leading roles in Coppola's musical drama One from the Heart (1982), Mr. Mom (1983), and Firstborn (1984). She later acted in films such as Martin Scorsese's black comedy After Hours (1985), Let It Ride (1989), Dumb and Dumber (1994), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Michael (1996) and Ghost World (2001).

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. On television, she took a guest role as Phoebe Abbott in 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.[8] She retired from acting in 2011 and died in 2024.

  1. ^ Gates, Anita (October 29, 2024). "Teri Garr, Comic Actress in Offbeat Roles, Is Dead at 79". The New York Times. Retrieved October 29, 2024. Terry Ann Garr was born on Dec. 11, 1944, in Los Angeles
  2. ^ Nelson, Valerie J. (October 29, 2024). "Teri Garr, comedic actor in 'Young Frankenstein' and 'Tootsie,' dies at 79". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 29, 2024. Teri Ann Garr was born into a show-business family in Los Angeles but spent her early years moving around the country
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Census was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Thomas, Bob (October 29, 2024). "Teri Garr, the offbeat comic actor of 'Young Frankenstein' and 'Tootsie,' has died". Associated Press. Retrieved October 29, 2024. She said she was born in Los Angeles, although most reference books list Lakewood, Ohio.
  5. ^ Hodgman, John (November 12, 2006). "How to Be Funny". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 24, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference afloat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Garr, Teri; Mantel, Henriette (2005). Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood. Waterville, Maine: Thorndike Press. ISBN 0786282010. OCLC 61499903.
  8. ^ Grossberg, Josh (January 3, 2007). "Garr Better After Brain Aneurysm". E! Online. Retrieved October 21, 2018.


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