US actress Teri Garr, best known for Young Frankenstein, Tootsie and Mr. Mom, has died, aged 79.
She died on Tuesday in Los Angeles, more than twenty years after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, her manger Marc Gurvitz confirmed.
She first shared her diagnosis publicly in a 2002 in an effort raise awareness for others living with MS.
“I think everybody is scared and frightened when they hear something like that,” Garr recalled of first learning her diagnosis, after visiting 11 doctors and experiencing years of symptoms they couldn’t explain. “That’s because there’s so much – you know, there’s not a lot of information out there about it. And a lot of people don’t know that it’s not that bad. I mean, I’m going on with my life.”
Garr’s earliest credits include dancing and appearing as an extra in films like Elvis Presley’s Viva Las Vegas, before apppearing on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, The Odd Couple and The Bob Newhart Show.
Her big break came in 1974, when she starred as Inga in the Young Frankenstein alongside Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman.
She followed with box office hits Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Tootsie, Mr. Mom noting two of her most memorable roles dealt with breaking stereotypes about gender norms then, Good & Evil, Good Advice and Women of the House.
She was perfectly cast as Lisa Kudrow’s mother on Friends while other TV credits included Felicity, ER, Life with Bonnie, Batman Beyond, What’s New, Scooby Doo? and How to Marry a Billionaire.
Through it all, Garr was a vocal advocate for people living with MS.
“I think some people want you to be upset. Not only am I not upset, but I’m okay. I don’t see any profit in being down, I don’t see that it gets you anywhere,” Garr reflected in an interview about the sense of optimism she maintained. “Maybe it has to do with my show-business background. You’re always being told that you’re not right for something, not tall enough, not pretty enough, whatever. I would say, ‘But I’m smart, I’m talented, I’m this, I’m that!!’ I’ve always been able to do that, and I do it now with MS.”
Source: CNN
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