Watch some of her career highlights

Comedy actress Teri Garr – whose credits include Young Frankenstein and Tootsie – has died at the age of 79.

The star died in Los Angeles on Tuesday after a 20-year battle with multiple sclerosis.

Her first break came in 1974 when she played a supporting role in the Francis Ford Coppola thriller The Conversation.

Later that year she gained even more profile as Inga, an assistant to Dr Frederick Frankenstein, in the Mel Brooks horror comedy Young Frankenstein.

Brooks tweeted today: ‘So very sorry to hear about Teri Garr’s passing. She was so talented and so funny. Her humour and lively spirit made the Young Frankenstein set a pleasure to work on. Her "German" accent had us all in stitches! She will be greatly missed.’

In 1982, she had another defining role in Tootsie, on which she she played  Sandy Lester, the acting friend of Dustin Hoffman’s character, who disguises himself as a woman to further his career.   It earned her Oscar and Bafta nominations and the praise of influential film critic Pauline Kael, who called her ‘the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on the screen’.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Garr made a number of TV appearances – including the recurring role of Phoebe Abbott, the estranged birth mother of Phoebe Buffay in Friends – until her autoimmune disease slowed down her career.

Her comedy CV also includes M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, The Odd Couple and hosting Saturday Night Live three times. She was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Meanwhile, dramatic roles include Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters Of The  Third Kind, in which she played the wife of Richard Dreyfuss's character and the 1979 drama The Black Stallion.

Off-screen, she was an activist who was once was arrested for trespassing during a protest against nuclear weapons testing, and was a supporter of The Trevor Project, a gay youth suicide prevention organisation.

Garr has been cited as an influence by the likes of Tina Fey and  Jenna Fischer, who played Pam in the US office.

Paul Feig, who directed Garr in Unaccompanied Minors tweeted: 'Oh man, this is devastating. Teri was a legend. So funny, so beautiful, so kind. I had the honor of working with her in 2006 and she was everything I dreamed she would be. Truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more. This is such a loss.' At the time of the film's release he wrote an article for the New York Times praising her talents.

As well as her MS, Garr faced other health problems, including an operation to repair an aneurysm in 2007.

Her publicist Heidi Schaeffer said  the actress died surrounded by family and friends.

Published: 30 Oct 2024