Teri Garr

Teri Ann Garr born December 11 1944 is a retired American actress dancer and singer She frequently appeared in comedic roles throughout her career which spans four decades and includes over 140 credits in film and television Her accolades include one Academy Award nomination a BAFTA Award nomination and one National Board of Review Award Born in Lakewood Ohio Garr was raised in North Hollywood She is the third child of a comedicactor father and a studio costumer mother In her youth Garr trained in ballet and other forms of dance She began her career as a teenager with small roles in television and film in the early 1960s including appearances as a dancer in six Elvis Presley musicals After spending two years attending college Garr left Los Angeles and studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City Her selfdescribed big break as an actress was landing a role in the Star Trek episode Assignment Earth after which she said I finally started to get real acting work Garr had a supporting role in Francis Ford Coppolas thriller The Conversation 1974 before having her film breakthrough as Inga in Young Frankenstein 1974 In 1977 she was cast in a highprofile role in Steven Spielbergs Close Encounters of the Third Kind Garr continued to appear in various highprofile roles throughout the 1980s including supporting parts in the comedies Tootsie 1982 for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Sandra Lester and then appearing opposite Michael Keaton the next year in Mr Mom 1983 She reunited with Coppola the same year appearing in his musical One from the Heart 1982 followed by a supporting part in Martin Scorseses black comedy After Hours 1985 Her quick banter led to Garr being a regular guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman In the 1990s she appeared in two films by Robert Altman The Player 1992 and PrêtàPorter 1994 followed by supporting roles in Michael 1996 and Ghost World 2001 She also appeared on television as Phoebe Abbott in three episodes of the sitcom Friends 199798 In 2002 Garr announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis the symptoms of which had negatively affected her ability to perform beginning in the 1990s