Teri Garr, 1944 - 2024

Delightfully wry actress Teri Garr, 79, died on Oct. 29 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. With her blonde bombshell looks and comic talents, Garr spent the 1960s wasted in commercials and starlet roles (she was a Batman henchgirl to George Sanders, and a Star Trek bit player). “I’d say things like, ‘Hi, Marge, how’s your laundry?’ and ‘Hi, I’m a real nice Georgia peach,’” Garr said of those early days. “Sometimes this work is one step above being a cocktail waitress.” Her breakthrough role came as Inga in Young Frankenstein (1974), but even then directors were at a loss as to exploiting her gifts. Garr acted in films (Oh, God!, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, One from the Heart, Tootsie, The Sting II, After Hours, Mom and Dad Save the World, Dumb & Dumber, Michael, Dick, Ghost World, Expired) and guested on numerous TV shows (perfectly cast as Lisa Kudrow’s mother on Friends), but never became the star she should have been. “People are always asking me, ‘what’s your favorite movie?’” Garr once said. “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.”