AILSA CHANG, HOST:
An actor who made her name in some of the top movies of the 1970s and '80s has died. Teri Garr starred in big movies like "Tootsie," "Young Frankenstein" and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind." She died of complications of multiple sclerosis this morning at her home in Los Angeles. Tanya Ballard Brown has this remembrance.
TANYA BALLARD BROWN, BYLINE: Actor and comedian Teri Garr started as a dancer. She shook her shimmy in nine Elvis Presley films, including "Viva Las Vegas" and "Clambake."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CLAMBAKE")
ELVIS PRESLEY: (As Scott Hayward, singing) Clambake, going to have a clambake.
BALLARD BROWN: In 2005, Teri Garr talked about working with Elvis on WHYY's Fresh Air.
TERI GARR: Yeah. At that time, he was doing about - at least four movies a year - bad ones, in Hollywood.
BALLARD BROWN: Garr's dad was a vaudeville performer, and her mom was one of the original Rockettes. Maybe that's how she got her comedic timing. Garr appeared on TV shows and in commercials before breaking out as sexy Inga in the 1974 Mel Brooks film "Young Frankenstein."
GARR: (As Inga) Would you like to have a roll in the hay? It's fun.(Singing) Roll, roll, roll in the hay.
BALLARD BROWN: Teri Garr starred in some of the biggest movies of her time - "The Conversation" with Gene Hackman and "Oh, God!" with George Burns. She earned an Oscar nomination as Dustin Hoffman's neurotic girlfriend Sandy in the 1982 film "Tootsie."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TOOTSIE")
DUSTIN HOFFMAN: (As Michael Dorsey) I'm going to tell you the truth, Sandy. I'm in love with another woman.
GARR: (As Sandy Lester) What are you saying?
HOFFMAN: (As Michael Dorsey) Sandy, please.
GARR: (As Sandy Lester) Oh, you liar, you liar.
BALLARD BROWN: Teri Garr's rueful cleverness tempered roles she often played. Martie Cook teaches comedy at Emerson College. She says Garr perfected the smart dumb blonde.
MARTIE COOK: By taking that character to another level, she, in fact, helped to open the door for roles like Phoebe on "Friends."
(SOUNDBITE OF THE REMBRANDTS SONG "I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU")
BALLARD BROWN: Garr would later appear on "Friends" as Phoebe's biological mom. In one episode, they try to figure out what they have in common.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FRIENDS")
GARR: (As Phoebe Abbott) Wait. I like The Beatles.
LISA KUDROW: (As Phoebe Buffay) Oh, my God. So do I.
GARR: (As Phoebe Abbott) I knew it (ph). Wow.
KUDROW: (As Phoebe Buffay) Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Puppies - cute or ugly?
GARR: (As Phoebe Abbott) Oh, so cute.
KUDROW: (As Phoebe Buffay) Oh, well, well.
COOK: It was perfect casting.
BALLARD BROWN: Cook says even after her 1999 diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, Garr kept working. The last part of her career was a lot like the beginning, with small appearances on big TV shows. After her memoir came out in 2005, Garr told WHYY's Fresh Air her life as an actor had unexpectedly equipped her for living with chronic illness.
GARR: Because when you start out in Hollywood, it's 99%, get out of here - rejection. And you have to develop the hide of a rhinoceros.
BALLARD BROWN: But Teri Garr said you always have to keep the spirit of a butterfly inside. Tanya Ballard Brown, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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