Teri Garr, Oscar-nominated star of “Tootsie,” “Young Frankenstein,” dies at 79

October 29, 2024 at 10:31 am

Teri Garr, who was nominated for an Oscar for her supporting role in “Tootsie” and also “Young Frankenstein,” “Mr. Mom” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” has died at the age of 79.

She had suffered from multiple sclerosis for years: she was diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 1999. Garr is “surrounded by family and friends,” her publicist Heidi Schaeffer told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

After playing the crazy lab assistant Inge to Gene Wilder's crazy doctor in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, she then played another disgruntled wife role alongside Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind John Denver in “Oh, God!”

The sought-after actress starred in some of her most famous films in the '80s, including “Tootsie,” in which she played Sandy, the battered girlfriend of Dustin Hoffman's main character. She received an Oscar nomination for the role, but lost out to her co-star Jessica Lange (who also competed against Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice for her role as troubled actress Frances Framer in Frances).

Garr starred in 1983’s “Mr. Mom” and one of the strange SoHo residents Griffin Dunne encounters during his nightmarish odyssey in Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours.”

More to come…