Teri Garr: Much loved actress dies aged 79 after battle with multiple sclerosis

Much loved Hollywood star Teri Garr has died aged 79.

The Oscar-nominated actress responsible for many iconic roles including her work in Young Frankenstein, Tootsie and Mr. Mom, died after a battle with multiple sclerosis.

Garr’s manager Mark Gurvitz told CNN on Tuesday that Ms Garr passed away after battling the disease for more than 20 years.

“I think everybody is scared and frightened when they hear something like that,” Garr recalled of first learning her diagnosis.

“That’s because there’s so much – you know, there’s not a lot of information out there about it. And many people don’t know that it’s not that bad. I mean, I’m going on with my life.”

After appearing in many top rating US tv shows in the 1970’s including The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, The New Dick Van Dyke Show had The Odd Couple she broke into film starring as Inga in the Mel Brooks-directed comedy hit Young Frankenstein alongside Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman in 1974.

Two years later, Garr appeared in one of her most notable roles when she played Robbie Neary, a wife trying to understand her husband’s (Richard Dreyfuss) inexplicable obsession as the result of an alien encounter, in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 sci-fi epic Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In Tootsie, Garr played a put-upon struggling actress who was dating Dustin Hoffman’s protagonist who in turn goes on to great fame pretending to be a woman on a soap opera.

The role scored Garr a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 1983 Academy Awards.

“I was proud,” Garr wrote of the nomination in her 2005 memoir, Speedbumps.

“The Academy not only knew I existed, they thought I was good!”

That same year, she played Caroline Butler in the family comedy Mr. Mom alongside Michael Keaton.

In a 2012 interview, Garr said she was not surprised two of her most memorable roles dealt with breaking stereotypes about gender norms.

“I resent it when they write the part of a woman who’s just a sexy femme fatale who seduces people to ger [sic] her way, perpetuating the myth that that’s how woman have to operate, instead of using their brains or their wit,” Garr reflected.

Garr was known for her slightly addled and zany comic timing, which naturally made her the perfect candidate to play mother to Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe Bouffay on Friends. Garr appeared in three episodes total over the third and fourth seasons.