One Year After Matthew Perry, FRIENDS Star Teri Garr Passes Away at 79 – Her Most Iconic Roles, Revealed
- Fans have lost yet another FRIENDS star as Teri Garr has bid adieu to the world at the age of 79.
- Garr appeared in many great projects like Young Frankenstein, Mr. Mom and The Conversation.
- The After Hours actress was vocal about her struggles with the neurodegenerative disease, multiple sclerosis.
Last year, the world lost Matthew Perry who was best known for his role as the charming and comic Chandler Bing in FRIENDS. This year has given us yet another star from the show to mourn as Teri Garr, who portrayed Phoebe Buffay’s (Lisa Kudrow) estranged mother, has passed away at the age of 79.
Garr began her professional acting career decades ago and stayed under the radar for a long time before deciding that she wanted to go mainstream no matter what it took. She proved her brilliance as an actress and had a long and successful Hollywood career.
Teri Garr Played Many Popular Roles Throughout Her Career
The daughter of a Broadway performer and a Rockette, Teri Garr grew up in Los Angeles and took ballet lessons. After graduating from high school, she attended college for two years before dropping out to move to New York City to pursue a career in acting. She made her film debut as an extra in 1963’s A Swingin’ Affair.
Some of her other earliest credited roles include her dancing and starring as an extra in Elvis Presley features such as Viva Las Vegas. She soon realized that this was not what she was supposed to do and that she had much more potential than this. Her first speaking role came in 1968’s Head.
The 1970s proved to be a good time in her career as she appeared on several episodes of the sketch comedy series The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, The Odd Couple, and The Bob Newhart Show. Her big breakthrough came in 1974’s horror comedy, Young Frankenstein.
She appeared as a struggling actress who was dating Dustin Hoffman‘s protagonist in the film Tootsie, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She played Michael Keaton’s wife in Mr. Mom. She also worked with big directors like Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Martin Scorsese (After Hours), and Francis Ford Coppola (The Conversation, One From the Heart).
In addition to this, Garr had a recurring character as Phoebe’s estranged birth mother, Phoebe Abbott in FRIENDS. She also did some voice acting in the early 2000s. Her final credit came in 2011 when she appeared on the TV series How to Marry a Billionaire. Years later, it was announced that she had retired from acting after this performance.
Teri Garr Advocated for People Who Suffered from Multiple Sclerosis
In the late 1990s, Garr was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic, degenerative disease of the nervous system that causes varying degrees of impairment, including weakness, numbness, and loss of muscle coordination. Despite this, she continued to act before retiring in 2011.
The Black Stallion actress began publicly addressing her diagnosis in late 2002. She did her best to advocate for awareness about the disease. Even so, she never gave up on optimism. In an interview with Brain & Life in 2005, she said:
I think some people want you to be upset. Not only am I not upset, but I’m okay. I don’t see any profit in being down, I don’t see that it gets you anywhere. Maybe it has to do with my show-business background. You’re always being told that you’re not right for something, not tall enough, not pretty enough, whatever. I would say, ‘But I’m smart, I’m talented, I’m this, I’m that!!’ I’ve always been able to do that, and I do it now with MS.
She was an inspiration for many in all the time that she spent in the spotlight as she never hesitated to take up non-stereotypical female roles. She has passed away at the age of 79, but the legacy she has left behind will always live.
