Known for: Acting
Born: 1944-12-11 · Lakewood, Ohio, USA
Died: 2024-10-29

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People

Teri Garr

Acting · follow into films and chains

Biography

Teri Ann Garr (December 11, 1944 – October 29, 2024) was an American actress, dancer and singer. She frequently appeared in comedic roles throughout her career, which spanned 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 was the third child of a comedic-actor 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 self-described "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 Coppola's thriller "The Conversation" (1974) before having her film breakthrough as Inga in "Young Frankenstein" (1974). In 1977, she was cast in a high-profile role in Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Garr continued to appear in various high-profile 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 Scorsese's 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 "Prêt-à-Porter" (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" (1997–98). 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. After years of declining health, she passed away on October 29, 2024.

Notable films

Where to start

Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.

The Conversation

Appears in a KinoChain journey

Tootsie

Appears in a KinoChain journey

Dumb and Dumber

As Helen Swanson

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

As Ronnie Neary

Young Frankenstein

As Inga

After Hours

As Julie

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

As Mary McGinnis (voice)

Mr. Mom

As Caroline

Chains

KinoChain journeys

Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.

Browse all chains

Double Trouble

From the Academy's rare double nods to the performances that earned them, this chain celebrates actors who competed against themselves in a single awards season...

8 films

The Art of Listening

From the whisper of a surveillance tape to the roar of a wartime beach, these eight films prove that sound is not just heard, it is felt. A chain of masterpiece...

7 films

Love in the Time of Espionage

From Berlin to Buenos Aires, a journey through films where romance and espionage entwine, revealing the human cost of secrets.

7 films

The Architecture of Obsession: Cinema of the Fixated Mind

Eight films in which a character's consuming fixation drives the narrative, examined through the directorial techniques that externalise interiority: subjective...

8 films

Topics