Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)

29 Oct 24 - 02:30 PM (#4210622)
Subject: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist
From: Stilly River Sage

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.

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29 Oct 24 - 02:45 PM (#4210624)
Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist -1944-2024
From: Stilly River Sage

CNN obit for those who aren't WaPo subscribers.

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29 Oct 24 - 06:33 PM (#4210635)
Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist -1944-2024
From: gillymor

She was so good.

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29 Oct 24 - 09:47 PM (#4210642)
Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist -1944-2024
From: Mrrzy

Aw, and a Trekkie, too!

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31 Oct 24 - 12:05 AM (#4210697)
Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist -1944-2024
From: Stilly River Sage

A string of interviews, lots of them with Letterman.

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31 Oct 24 - 09:49 AM (#4210712)
Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: Gorgeous Gary

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.

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31 Oct 24 - 10:48 AM (#4210720)
Subject: RE: Teri Garr, actress, dancer, MS activist(1944-2024)
From: GUEST,saulgoldie

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

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