LOS ANGELES (AP) ā Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites and "Tootsie," has died. She was 79.
Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis āsurrounded by family and friends,ā said publicist Heidi Schaeffer. Garr battled other health problems in recent years and underwent an operation in January 2007 to repair an aneurysm.
Admirers took to social media in her honor, with calling her ātruly one of my comedy heroes. I couldnāt have loved her moreā and saying: āNever the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.ā
The actor, who was sometimes credited as Terri, Terry or Terry Ann during her long career, seemed destined for show business from her childhood.
Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comedian; her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dance lessons at 6 and by 14 was dancing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies.
She was 16 when she joined the road company of "West Side Story" in Los Angeles, and as early as 1963 she began appearing in bit parts in films.
She recalled in a 1988 interview how she won the "West Side Story" role. After being dropped from her first audition, she returned a day later in different clothes and was accepted.
From there, Garr found steady work dancing in movies, and she appeared in the chorus of nine Presley films, including "Viva Las Vegas," "Roustabout" and "Clambake."
She also appeared on numerous television shows, including āStar Trek,ā āDr. Kildareā and āBatman,ā and was a featured dancer on the rock ānā roll music show āShindig,ā the rock concert performance T.A.M.I. and a cast member of āThe Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.ā
Her big film break came as Gene Hackmanās girlfriend in 1974ās thriller āThe Conversation.ā That led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who said he would hire her for the role of Gene Wilderās German lab assistant in 1974ās āYoung Frankensteinā ā if she could speak with a German accent.
āCher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,ā Garr once recalled.
The film established her as a talented comedy performer, with New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael proclaiming her āthe funniest neurotic dizzy dame on the screen.ā
Her big smile and off-center appeal helped land her roles in āOh, God!ā opposite George Burns and John Denver, āMr. Momā (as Michael Keatonās wife) and āTootsieā in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and learns that he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career. (She also lost the supporting actress Oscar at that yearās Academy Awards to Lange.)
Although best known for comedy, Garr showed in such films as āClose Encounters of the Third Kind,ā āThe Black Stallionā and āThe Escape Artistā that she could handle drama equally well.
āI would like to play āNorma Raeā and āSophieās Choice,ā but I never got the chance,ā she once said, adding she had become typecast as a comic actor.
She had a flair for spontaneous humor, often playing David Lettermanās foil during guest appearances on NBCās āLate Night With David Lettermanā early in its run.
Her appearances became so frequent, and the pairās good-natured bickering so convincing, that for a time rumors cropped up that they were romantically involved. Years later, Letterman credited those early appearances with helping make the show a hit.
It was also during those years that Garr began to feel āa little beeping or tickingā in her right leg. It began in 1983 and eventually spread to her right arm as well, but she felt she could live with it. By 1999 the symptoms had become so severe that she consulted a doctor. The diagnosis: multiple sclerosis.
For three years Garr didnāt reveal her illness.
āI was afraid that I wouldnāt get work,ā she explained in a 2003 interview. āPeople hear MS and think, āOh, my God, the person has two days to live.āā
After going public, she became a spokesperson for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, making humorous speeches to gatherings in the U.S. and Canada.
āYou have to find your center and roll with the punches because thatās a hard thing to do: to have people pity you,ā she commented in 2005. āJust trying to explain to people that Iām OK is tiresome.ā
She also continued to act, appearing on āLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit,ā āGreetings From Tucson,ā āLife With Bonnieā and other TV shows. She also had a brief recurring role on āFriendsā in the 1990s as Lisa Kudrowās mother. Garr married contractor John OāNeil in 1993. They adopted a daughter, Molly, before divorcing in 1996.
In her 2005 autobiography, āSpeedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood,ā Garr explained her decision not to discuss her age.
āMy mother taught me that showbiz people never tell their real ages. She never revealed hers or my fatherās,ā she wrote.
She said she was born in Los Angeles, although most reference books list Lakewood, Ohio. As her fatherās career waned, the family, including Teriās two older brothers, lived with relatives in the Midwest and East.
The Garrs eventually moved back to California, settling in the San Fernando Valley, where Teri graduated from North Hollywood High School and studied speech and drama for two years at California State University, Northridge.
Garr recalled in 1988 what her father had told his children about pursuing a career in Hollywood.
āDonāt be in this business,ā he told them. āItās the lowest. Itās humiliating to people.ā
Garr is survived by her daughter, Molly OāNeil, and a grandson, Tyryn.
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Bob Thomas, a longtime Associated Press journalist who died in 2014, was the principal writer of this obituary. AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy contributed to this report.
Bob Thomas, The Associated Press
