Teri Ann Garr is an American actress and comedienne.
Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio. Her father, Eddie Garr (born Eddie Gonnau), was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road. Her mother, Phyllis (née Lind), was a dancer, wardrobe mistress, and model. Garr is a graduate of an all-girls Roman Catholic high school named Magnificat in Rocky River, Ohio, near her hometown of Lakewood.
Early in her career she was sometimes credited as Terri Garr, Terry Garr, Teri Hope, or Terry Carr. Garr's movie debut was as an extra in the 1963 film A Swingin' Affair. During her early career she appeared in several Elvis Presley movies, usually in uncredited roles as a dancer. She had a cameo appearance as a damsel in distress in The Monkees film Head and, in the mid-1970s, had significant roles in major films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Young Frankenstein.
Garr has also appeared frequently on television. A notable early appearance was in the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" (1968). She played the recurring character of a desk police officer who was constantly forced to work late and always had to phone her date and cancel in McCloud. She was also a regular on several variety shows in the early 1970s including The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show, and The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour. She hosted Saturday Night Live three times throughout the late '70s and early '80s. As a recurring guest on Late Night with David Letterman, she was renowned for her unscripted banter with personal friend Letterman, who once goaded her into showering in his office while the camera rolled. She played a recurring character in Friends (the estranged birth mother of Lisa Kudrow's character, Phoebe Buffay) in the late 1990s.
Garr appeared in a series of local television commercials in several markets for various FM radio stations.
In October 2002, Garr made it public that she has multiple sclerosis. After years of uncertainty and secrecy surrounding her diagnosis, Teri explained her reasons for deciding to share her private battle with the world, "I'm telling my story for the first time, so I can help people. I can help people know they aren't alone, and tell them there are reasons to be optimistic because today treatment options are available".
Since Garr announced that she has MS, she has become a leading advocate in raising awareness for MS and the latest treatments for the disease. She is a National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and National Chair for the Society's Women Against MS program (WAMS). WAMS is a nationwide education and fundraising program that helps to increase the public's awareness of MS and the National MS Society while acknowledging and encouraging the advancement of women philanthropists. In November 2005, Garr was honored as the Society’s Ambassador of the Year for her commitment to raising awareness for the MS cause. This honor had been given only four times since the Society was founded.
She is the mother of an adopted daughter and resides in Los Angeles. Garr is left handed.
On December 21, 2006 she suffered a brain aneurysm in her Los Angeles area home; her 13-year-old daughter called for help when she couldn't get her to wake up. Following surgery, her publicist Heidi Schaeffer said she expects Garr to make a full recovery. Her autobiography Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood (co-written by Henriette Mantel) was published in 2005.
