by Abb Jones
The Reelness

Oscar-nominated actress Teri Garr, best known for her quirky comic roles in such films as Young Frankenstein and Tootsie, has died at her home in Los Angeles after a lengthy battle with multiple sclerosis. She was 79.

After starting her career as a go-go dancer and appearing in several TV sitcoms, the Ohio-born and Los Angeles-raised Garr’s big film break was as the assistant Inga, in Mel Brooks’ 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein.

Garr would go on to appear in such films as Tootsie, for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, Close Encounters of the Third Kind with Richard Dreyfuss, and as the working mother to Michael Keaton’s stay-at-home dad in Mr. Mom.

A very frequent guest on Late Night with David Letterman, the always funny and entertaining Garr also hosted Saturday Night Live three times and in the late 1990s appeared on the wildly popular TV sitcom Friends as Phoebe’s estranged mother, prior to revealing her MS diagnosis in 2002.

Garr is survived by her daughter, Molly O’Neil and grandson Tyryn.