“Friends” fans are once again mourning the death of a character from the show. Actress Teri Garr, who played Phoebe’s mother in the famous sitcom, died Tuesday October 29 in Los Angeles at the age of 79. She died of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said her agent Heidi Schaeffer.
The actress announced she had the disease in 2002, which largely disrupted her late career, and she also had to battle other health problems, such as an operation in January 2007 to repair an aneurysm.
Daughter of an actor and a dancer and costume designer, Teri Garr began her career in the early 1960s, notably in small dancing roles in several Elvis Presley films. She had her hour of glory in the 1970s, appearing in cult films of the time like “Secret Conversation” (1974) by Francis Ford Coppola, Palme d’Or at Cannes, but especially in “Frankenstein Junior” (1974) by Mel Brooks, where she obtained her first important role.
“Brilliant and unique in everything she did”
She also made several notable appearances in films by great directors such as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) by Steven Spielberg, “After Hours” (1985) by Martin Scorsese and “The Player” (1992) by Robert Altman, but it was in the comedy “Tootsie” (1982) that she burst onto the screen. She plays the role of a struggling actress who dates the main character, played by Dustin Hoffman. A film that earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 1983 Oscars.
The actress who also played alongside Jim Carrey in “Dumb & Dumber” (1994) is best known in France for having played the role of Phoebe’s mother, played by Lisa Kudrow, in three episodes of the series “Friends “, in 1997 and 1998. “Teri was a comedy genius and she had a huge influence on me,” Lisa Kudrow told People, in reaction to her death.
Dustin Hoffman remembers Teri Garr as a woman who was “brilliant and unique in everything she did, and had a heart of gold.” “Working with her has been one of the greatest pleasures. She was one of a kind,” the man who starred alongside her in “Tootsie” told the NY Post. After announcing that she suffered from multiple sclerosis in 2002 and then an aneurysm a few years later, the actress ended her acting career in 2011.