‘Young Frankenstein,’ ‘Close Encounters’ star Teri Garr dies at 79

Oct. 29 (UPI) — Actor Teri Garr died Tuesday at age 79. CNN confirmed with Garr’s manager and The Hollywood Reporter with her publicist, Heidi Schaeffer.

In 2002, Garr appeared on Larry King Live to reveal she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her last on screen role was a 2011 episode of How to Marry a Billionaire.

Garr danced in Elvis Presley movies Fun in Acapulco, Viva Las Vegas and Kissin’ Cousins. She was prolific on television in the ’60s and ’70s in episodes of Star Trek, That Girl, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, M*A*S*H and The Bob Newhart Show.

On film, she memorably played Frankenstein’s (Gene Wilder) assistant Inga in Young Frankenstein, the wife Richard Dreyfus leaves to meet aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the title character’s working wife in Mr. Mom and an actor who helps Dustin Hoffman disguise himself as a woman in Tootsie.

Garr was the leading woman in the musical love story One From the Heart and the mom in The Black Stallion and The Black Stallion Returns. She reunited with Dreyfuss in the horse racing comedy Let It Ride.

She continued to appear in films like Mom and Dad Save the World, Dumb and Dumber, Dick and Ghost World and episodes of Tales from the Crypt, ER, Murphy Brown, and Friends as Phoebe’s (Lisa Kudrow) biological mother.