Obit: Actress Teri Garr (1944-2024)

Subject: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Oct 24 - 02:30 PM

She had musical chops in her early years, dancing and in musicals, though is best known for her mostly comedic performances in many films. Young Frankenstein, Tootsie, Close Encounters, and the first place I ever saw her was as a guest in an episode of the original Star Trek.

From the Washington Post

Terry Ann Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio, on Dec. 11, 1944, and grew up in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and Los Angeles. Her mother, Phyllis Lind, was a Rockette and stockings model known as “Legs”; her father, Eddie Garr, was a struggling vaudeville comedian who played Marilyn Monroe’s father in the 1948 film “Ladies of the Chorus.”

Ms. Garr wrote in her autobiography that her father’s alcohol addiction and gambling losses created family tensions that she tried to smooth over by putting on song-and-dance shows in their garage. “I saw that, when I put my mind to it,” she observed, “I could have a real effect on the people around me.”

At 16, five years after her father’s death, she appeared in the West Coast road company of the Broadway musical “West Side Story.” When her dance teacher David Winters was asked to choreograph Presley films, Ms. Garr was recruited as a background dancer.

Desperate to move beyond dance roles, and hoping to disarm movie producers, she jokingly padded her résumé to include Broadway appearances in emotionally tortured dramas such as Eugene O’Neill’s “Desire Under the Elms” and Anton Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters” — and she said casting agents never looked askance at her dubious credentials, or laughed at the footnotes admitting to the white lie.

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist -1944-2024
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Oct 24 - 02:45 PM

CNN obit for those who aren't WaPo subscribers.

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist -1944-2024
From: gillymor
Date: 29 Oct 24 - 06:33 PM

She was so good.

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist -1944-2024
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Oct 24 - 09:47 PM

Aw, and a Trekkie, too!

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist -1944-2024
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 24 - 12:05 AM

A string of interviews, lots of them with Letterman.

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 31 Oct 24 - 09:49 AM

Yep, "Assignment: Earth" from the original Star Trek series was the first thing that popped to my mind when I saw the obit.

And of course as a Mel Brooks fan in good standing I love Young Frankenstein.

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 31 Oct 24 - 10:48 AM

From Young Frankenstein:

"He would have an enormous Schwanstucker."

We are fortunate to have had her and so many other of the departing greats.

Saul

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Nov 24 - 12:51 PM

I still remember Gene Wilder saying to her Young Frankenstein character,
"What Knockers!"

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 03 Nov 24 - 04:13 AM

One of my favourite country blues guitar albums is ‘Panic When the Sun Goes Down’ (by Nick Katzman and ‘Ruby Green’). I understand that Teri Garr provided the fabulous vocals under that pseudonym (for contractual reasons). Check it out, if you can source it somewhere (produced by Stefan Grossman for his Kicking Mule label).

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 03 Nov 24 - 07:34 AM

'Check it out, if you can source it somewhere'

The album is on YouTube, separate tracks.

Here's a start: Panic when the sun goes down

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Nov 24 - 08:05 AM

Nick Katzman & Ruby Green - I am going away...

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: gillymor
Date: 03 Nov 24 - 09:15 AM

I have that LP somewhere and I played it a lot but no idea that TG sang on it.

Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Nov 24 - 12:58 PM

Nice album!