‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Tootsie’ Star Teri Garr Passes Away!!

It’s a difficult day for comedy fans everywhere, as the iconic actress Teri Garr has passed away at 79 years old today. The Academy Award-nominated performer had long been battling multiple sclerosis, first coming forward with her diagnosis more than two decades ago in 2002 and revealing that she had gone through an aneurysm a few years later in 2006. That same year, she would publish an autobiography titled, Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood, recounting her life and lengthy career as what many would consider to be one of the industry’s pioneering women of comedy.

First making a name for herself as a dancer, Garr can be spotted in the background of a handful of Elvis Presley films, work that would get her foot in the door. Her first small roles would come in the ‘60s in productions like Batman and The Andy Griffith Show, with her acting class peer, Jack Nicholson, adding her to the cast of the Monkees’ film, Head, which he penned. This would be the first of many speaking roles to come for Garr, who would go on to become a regular performer on The Sonny and Cher Show before finding a collaborative friend in Francis Ford Coppola. First pairing up for The Conversation, the actress and director worked together again in One From the Heart.

Garr’s big breakthrough would come opposite Gene Wilder in Mel Brooks’ classic comedy feature, Young Frankenstein, in which she appeared as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein’s (Wilder) assistant, Inga, who delivered the classic line, “Vould you like to have a roll in ze hay?” The actress’s other career-defining role came opposite Dustin Hoffman in the Sydney Pollack film, Tootsie, for which she nabbed an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Other big-screen highlights include Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind as Ronnie Neary, the wife of Richard Dreyfuss’ Roy Neary, and Stan Dragoti’s Mr. Mom, in which she starred as Caroline Butler opposite Michael Keaton’s Jack Butler.

Teri Garr On Television

Along with her early work on Batman and The Andy Griffith Show, Garr also held down spots on other popular shows of the time, including Star Trek, M*A*S*H, The Odd Couple, and The Bob Newhart Show. With the bragging rights of hosting Saturday Night Live a whopping three times, the actress was welcomed with open arms during each of her appearances. In the ‘90s, making herself known to a new generation of fans, Garr appeared on Friends as Phoebe Abbott, the mother of Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe and Ursula Buffay. She also popped in for one-offs in other titles like Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, ER, Felicity, and King of the Hill. Speaking of animation, Garr’s voice can also be heard as Mary McGinnis in two Batman films, Batman Beyond: The Movie and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.