Teri Garr

Early in her career she was credited as Terri Garr, Terry Garr, Teri Hope, or Terry Carr. Her movie debut was as an extra in A Swingin' Affair (1963). During her senior year she auditioned for the cast of the Los Angeles road company production of West Side Story, where she met one of the most important people in her early career, David Winters, who became her friend, dance teacher, and mentor.[12] Winters cast her in many of his early movies and projects.[13][14]

Garr began as a background go-go dancer in uncredited roles in youth-oriented films and TV shows choreographed by Winters,[15] including Pajama Party (a beach party film), the T.A.M.I. Show, Shindig!, Shivaree, Hullabaloo, Movin' with Nancy, and six Elvis Presley features (many of which were also choreographed by Winters, including Presley's most profitable film, Viva Las Vegas.[16] When asked in a magazine interview about how she landed jobs in so many Presley films, Garr answered, "One of the dancers in the road show of West Side Story (David Winters) started to choreograph movies, and whatever job he got, I was one of the girls he'd hire. So he was chosen to do Viva Las Vegas. That was my first movie."[14]

She often appeared on television during this time, performing as a go-go dancer on several musical variety shows, along with friend Toni Basil, such as Shindig! and Hullabaloo. In 1966 Garr made one appearance on Batman (episode 7, uncredited). In 1968, she appeared in both The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D.[17] and was in two episodes of It Takes a Thief.

Her first speaking role in a motion picture was a brief appearance as a damsel in distress in the Monkees film Head (1968), written by Jack Nicholson; Garr obtained the role after meeting Nicholson in an acting class.[18] "He wrote the script for Head, so all of us in the class got little tiny parts in the movie," she recalled. "I was… Who was I? Oh yes, I was the girl dying of a snakebite, who falls off the conestoga wagon and says, "Quick, suck it before the venom reaches my heart!""[18] Earlier in that year she landed her first significant TV role, featured as secretary Roberta Lincoln in the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth", designed as a backdoor pilot episode for a new series which was not commissioned. "Star Trek was the first job where I had a fairly big (for me) speaking part," Garr related in her memoir, "I played Roberta Lincoln, a dippy secretary in a pink and orange costume with a very short skirt. Had the spin-off succeeded, I would have continued on as an earthling agent, working to preserve humanity. In a very short skirt." This led to her being, in her words, "cast as birdbrained lasses," in episodes of other TV shows.[4]

In 1972 she landed a regular role in The Ken Berry "WOW" Show, a summer replacement series. Afterwards, she was a regular cast member on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, dancing and acting in comedy sketches.[19]

Garr appeared in a string of highly successful films in the mid-to-late 1970s, including a supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola's thriller The Conversation (1974).[20] This was followed with her role as Inga, an assistant to Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, in the Mel Brooks horror comedy Young Frankenstein (1974), which marked a career breakthrough.[21] She then appeared in a dramatic role in Steven Spielberg's science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as the wife of Richard Dreyfuss's character;[20] in Oh, God! (1977) as the wife of John Denver's character; and the drama The Black Stallion (1979) as the mother of the boy protagonist.[20]

In 1978, Garr appeared Off-Broadway in a production of One Crack Out by Canadian playwright David French, playing the wife of Charlie, a pool hustler in Toronto.[22] Richard Eder of The New York Times noted that Garr "manages an attractive uncertainty and devotion as Charlie's wife."[22]

In 1982, she starred opposite Dustin Hoffman in the comedy Tootsie (1982), playing an actress whose actor friend (Hoffman) disguises himself as a woman to further his career.[23] For her role, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She then appeared in the comedy Mr. Mom (1983) as the wife of Michael Keaton's character, followed by a supporting role in Martin Scorsese's After Hours (1985). In 1992, Teri played Marge Nelson in Mom and Dad Save the World, a sci-fi adventure family romantic comedy film.

Garr and Hector Elizondo on the set of Perfect Alibi with director Kevin Meyer

Garr had a recurring role on McCloud, and appeared on M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, The Odd Couple, Maude, Barnaby Jones, and Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers. She hosted Saturday Night Live three times (in 1980, 1983, and 1985), and was a frequent visitor on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.[24]

As a recurring guest on Late Night with David Letterman, Garr was renowned for her unscripted banter with David Letterman,[25] who once goaded her into showering in his office while the camera rolled.[26][27] In 1989, she appeared in Let It Ride, also opposite Dreyfuss.[20] In the late 1990s, Garr landed a role as recurring character Phoebe Abbott in Friends, the estranged birth mother of Phoebe Buffay.[28]

Garr's career began to slow in the late-1990s after she was informed by a neurologist that symptoms she had been experiencing for many years were those of multiple sclerosis.[29] In film, she appeared in minor supporting roles, including portraying a witch in the children's film Casper Meets Wendy (1998), and as the mother of Michelle Williams in the political comedy Dick (1999).[30] This was followed by an uncredited role in Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World (2001).[31] She also provided the voice of Mary McGinnis in two Batman animated films: Batman Beyond: The Movie (1999), and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000).[24]

Garr returned to the stage in 2000, appearing in numerous Off-Broadway performances of The Vagina Monologues throughout the fall of that year opposite Sanaa Lathan and Julianna Margulies.[32] She subsequently had minor supporting roles in the Christmas comedy film Unaccompanied Minors (2006),[33] and the independent comedies Expired and Kabluey (both 2007).[34]

In 2006, Garr published an autobiography which details her career and health struggles following her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, titled Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood.[3] Garr appeared on The Moth Radio Hour broadcast of December 9, 2009 to tell a humorous reminiscence, entitled "Wake Up Call".[35]

Garr last acted on television in 2011. In addition, she appeared at the 19th Annual Race to Erase MS (multiple sclerosis) event in 2012.[36]

In October 2002, Garr publicly confirmed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.[41] After years of uncertainty and secrecy surrounding her diagnosis, Garr explained her reasons for deciding to go public: "I'm telling my story for the first time so I can help people. I can help people know they aren't alone and tell them there are reasons to be optimistic because, today, treatment options are available."[41]

In interviews, she has commented that she first started noticing symptoms while she was in New York filming Tootsie around 1982. After disclosing her condition, she became a National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and National Chair for the Society's Women Against MS program (WAMS).[42] In November 2005, Garr was honored as the society's Ambassador of the Year. The same year, she revealed her treatment regimen for the disease, which included regular steroid injections to help manage symptoms.[29] Closer reported in 2015 that she credited her positive attitude and support of her family as helping her fight the disease.[43]

In December 2006, Garr suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm.[44] The aneurysm left Garr in a coma for weeks,[34] but after therapy, she regained speech and motor skills, and, in 2008 she appeared on Late Show with David Letterman in order to promote Expired, a 2007 film in which she played a set of twins.[45]