In Memoriam: Teri Garr

Comic actress Teri Garr, who starred in Young Frankenstein and Tootsie, died on Tuesday, October 29, 2024, after a lengthy battle with multiple sclerosis. She was 79 years old.

In Young Frankenstein, Garr memorably played Inga the cheeky assistant to Dr. Frederick Frankenstein. She starred in Tootsie as acting student Sandy Lester who falls for lead character Michael Dorsey, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Garr was born on December 11, 1944, in Lakewood, Ohio, she attended Cal State Northridge, then moved to New York City to study acting. Her career began in the 1960s as a go-go dancer and background performer in Elvis Presley movies like Viva Las Vegas and Kissin’ Cousins.

Early in her career, she was in episodes of Batman and Star Trek, Head with the Monkees, multiple episodes of The Sonny and Cher Show, and she was in several episodes of McCloud as Sgt. Norton, which was an early TV appearance of a female cop. She starred in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Witches’ Brew, The Black Stallion, and played the working mom opposite Michael Keaton in Mr. Mom.

Garr bounced between TV and movie roles like After Hours, Out Cold, an episode of Tales from the Crypt, two episodes of Dream On, Mom and Dad Save the World, and she was Helen Swanson in Dumb and Dumber. She starred in the short-lived sitcom Women of the House, was in Michael, appeared in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and she was in three episodes of Friends as Phoebe’s birth mother.

Her later roles included voicing Mary McGinnis in the Batman Beyond animated series, she was in Ghost World, voiced a few characters in Scooby-Doo shows, did an episode of Law & Order: SVU, and Garr’s final role was in 2011 in an episode of How to Marry a Billionaire.