Biography

Teri Garr

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Overview

Born
December 11, 1944 · Los Angeles, California, USA
Died
October 29, 2024 · Los Angeles, California, USA (degenerative disease of the nervous system)
Birth name
Terry Ann Garr
Height
5′ 7″ (1.70 m)

Biography

Teri Garr was able to claim a career in show business by birthright. She was the daughter of Eddie Garr, a Broadway stage and film actor, and Phyllis Garr, a dancer. While she was still an infant, her family moved from Hollywood to New Jersey but, after the death of her father when she was 11, the family returned to Hollywood, where her mother became a wardrobe mistress for movies and television. While Garr's dancing can be seen in five Elvis Presley movies, her first speaking role in motion pictures was in the 1968 feature Head (1968), starring The Monkees.

In the 1970s, she established herself on television with appearances on shows such as Star Trek (1966), It Takes a Thief (1968) and McCloud (1970), and became a semi-regular on The Sonny and Cher Show (1976) as Cher's friend, Olivia. Garr rose to become one of Hollywood's most versatile, energetic and well-recognized actresses.

She starred in many memorable films, including Young Frankenstein (1974), Oh, God! (1977), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Mr. Mom (1983), After Hours (1985) and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Supporting Actress in Tootsie (1982). Other film roles include The Black Stallion (1979), One from the Heart (1981), The Escape Artist (1982), Firstborn (1984), Let It Ride (1989), Full Moon in Blue Water (1988), Out Cold (1989), Short Time (1990), Waiting for the Light (1990), Mom and Dad Save the World (1992), Perfect Alibi (1995), Ready to Wear (1994) and A Simple Wish (1997).
- IMDb mini biography by: Catherine Grace

Family

Spouse
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademark

Bubbly blonde persona with various undercurrents of extreme quirkiness, neuroses or even menace

Trivia

Continued to work despite the fact that she was battling multiple sclerosis, first diagnosed in 1983.
She was a National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and National Chair for the Society's Women Against MS program (WAMS).
Suffered a brain aneurysm on December 21, 2006.
Steven Spielberg cast her in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) after seeing her work on a coffee commercial.
She has appeared in six films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The T.A.M.I. Show (1964), The Conversation (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The Black Stallion (1979) and Tootsie (1982).

Quotes

I've always had this American-pie face that would get work in commercials . . . I'd say things like, "Hi, Marge, how's your laundry?" and "Hi, I'm a real nice Georgia peach". Sometimes this work is one step above being a cocktail waitress.
Any movie I've ever made, the minute you walk on the set they tell you who's the person to buy it [cocaine] from. Cher said they're going to make two monuments to us--the two girls who lived through Hollywood and never had cocaine.
It's different things at different times, you know? It's like when you read a true crime story and think it's really good, then the next book you pick up is a biography and you really like that. I don't consider that I have to judge any of the movies I make all the time, but people are always asking me: "What's your favorite movie?" And I never know what to say. They're just jobs to me, really. I take the part I'm lucky enough to get and do the best I can and then -- I don't know, they're just jobs.
Listen, I don't know. It's all theory. If I knew what I was talking about, I would be running the studio. That's why they keep changing the heads of the studios: Nobody knows. Nobody knows. But I'm sure it has affected the quality of movies. Being sensitive to the problem of women is just another symptom of the quality of movies: I don't think you can do anything that's very sensitive. Everything's sort of broad strokes and big gestures--adventure things that boys, guys--want to see.
The business is in a funny position these days. They gear everything to those target audiences that make money. Things look more and more like TV and the quality becomes different. People aren't so interested in seeing movies about women's problems.