Teri Garr, Star of ‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Tootsie,’ Dies at 79

Teri Garr, the comic actress and singer who brought her buoyant personality to “Young Frankenstein” and was Oscar-nominated for “Tootsie,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. She was 79. An influential performer to comedians including Tina Fey, Garr was a familiar face in dozens of TV shows and films of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. The actress revealed in 2002 that she had been diagnosed with MS, and she suffered an aneurysm in 2006. After starting her career as a dancer, Garr first gained attention as Inga, the saucy assistant in Mel Brooks’ 1974 “Young Frankenstein,” who greeted Gene Wilder’s Dr. Frederick Frankenstein with the memorable “Vould you like to have a roll in ze hay?” On “Friends,” she played Phoebe Abbot in three episodes in 1997 and 1998. In Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” Garr was the wife of Richard Dreyfuss’ character. She netted a supporting actress Oscar nomination starring opposite Dustin Hoffman as his actress friend in Sydney Pollack’s “Tootsie,” and played the working mom to Michael Keaton’s stay-at-home dad in “Mr. Mom.” Born in Ohio, she moved to Los Angeles, graduated North Hollywood High School, and attended … Continue reading Teri Garr, Star of ‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Tootsie,’ Dies at 79