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Teri Garr Biography

(1949–)

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Readers Digest Interview with Teri

Actress. Born December 11, 1949, in Los Angeles, California. The daughter of a vaudeville performer and former Rockette, Garr aspired for a career in the dramatic arts at an early age. At the age of 16, she made her professional debut with the San Francisco Ballet. Garr attended North Hollywood High School followed by California State University at Northridge, where she excelled at stage acting and dancing. While still a teenager, Garr relocated to New York City and enrolled at the famed Actors' Studio.

In the early1960s, Garr worked steadily as a dancer in a series of Elvis Presley films, most notably Fun in Acapulco (1963), Kissin’ Cousins, and Viva Las Vegas (both 1964). In 1968, she was cast in her first speaking role in the musical satire Head.

Throughout the early 1970s, Garr showcased her flair for comedy with regular performances on the television variety shows The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, The Ken Berry "Wow" Show, and The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour. Her first substantial film role came in 1974 when director Francis Ford Coppola cast her opposite Gene Hackman in the critically acclaimed psychological thriller The Conversation. In her role as the voluptuous Inga, Garr joined a brilliant comedic ensemble that included Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, and Madeline Kahn in Mel Brook's hilarious farce Young Frankenstein (1974), which is widely considered to be one of the funniest films of all time.

Following bland roles in the films Oh, God! (1977) and The Black Stallion (1979), Garr earned an Oscar nomination for her supporting part as Dustin Hoffman’s neurotic girlfriend in Tootsie (1981). She starred with Michael Keaton in the domestic comedy Mr. Mom (1983) before turning her attention toward more demanding roles in television movies and miniseries, including Fresno, Intimate Strangers (both 1986), and Pack of Lies (1987).

In the early 1990s, Garr starred in the failed TV sitcoms Good and Evil (1991), Good Advice (1993), and Women of the House (1995). In the ensuing years many of her dramatic performances proved to be disappointing, however, she continued to excel in comedic roles, most notably in the low-brow Jim Carrey vehicle Dumb and Dumber (1994) and the political satire Dick (1999). Recently, Garr had a brief stint playing Lisa Kudrow's mother on the wildly popular NBC sitcom Friends. She is currently filming the romantic comedy Life Without Dick (2001), which costars Harry Connick Jr. and Sarah Jessica Parker

In 1993, Garr married John O'Neil; they had one child before divorcing in 1996.