Oscar-nominated actress Teri Garr, best known for her roles in Young Frankenstein and Tootsie, has died.
Garr, who also starred in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, died at the age of 79, her manager said on Tuesday.
She appeared in three episodes of Friends in 1997 and 1998 as Phoebe Abbot, the estranged birth mother of Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe.
Teri Garr with Dustin Hoffman (L) and Sydney Pollack in Tootsie. Pic: Rex Features/Everett/Shutterstock
She was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in 1982’s Tootsie, starring opposite Dustin Hoffman, but lost out to Maureen Stapleton.
Her most famous role was playing Inga, a Transylvania local who becomes the assistant to Gene Wilder’s Dr Frederick Frankenstein in Mel Brooks’ 1974 comedy hit, Young Frankenstein.
Also in the star-studded cast were Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman and Gene Hackman.
Garr had plenty of memorable lines, such as “Vould you like to have a roll in zee hay?”
Garr struggled with health issues in recent years and in 2002, she revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and had been suffering symptoms for some two decades.
Five years later, she underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm.
Teri Garr in Los Angeles in 2012. Pic: Reuters
Teri Ann Garr was born in Cleveland in 1944 to showbusiness parents.
Her father, Eddie, was a vaudeville performer and actor who appeared on Broadway and her mother, Phyllis, had been a member of the Rockettes precision dance troupe.
After studying in Los Angeles, Garr moved to New York to pursue a career first in ballet and then in acting, studying at the famed Actor’s Studio in Manhattan.
Garr, a quirky comedy performer, got her break with bit parts in a number of 1960s Elvis Presley movies, including Viva Las Vegas and Roustabout.
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