Tootsie, Young Frankenstein actor Teri Garr dies at 79

Academy Award-nominated actress Teri Garr, best known for such films as Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Tootsie, has died at age 79, her manager says.

Garr had struggled with health issues in recent years. In 2002 she disclosed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis after experiencing symptoms for some two decades. In 2007, she underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm.

Teri Ann Garr was born on December 11, 1944 in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, to show-business parents: Her father, Eddie, was a vaudeville performer and actor who appeared on Broadway and her mother, Phyllis, had been a Rockette.

After attending college in Los Angeles, Garr moved to New York City to pursue a career in ballet and then in acting, studying at the famed Actors Studio in Manhattan.

Some of her earliest credits included work as a background dancer in Elvis Presley's Viva Las Vegas.

After roles on TV shows such as Star Trek and Batman, Garr was cast by Mel Brooks as a German lab assistant in the 1974 film Young Frankenstein.

"Her humour and lively spirit made the Young Frankenstein set a pleasure to work on," Brooks wrote on X.

"Her 'German' accent had us all in stitches! She will be greatly missed."

Michael Keaton, who starred with Garr in Mr. Mom, also paid tribute.

"Forget about how great she was as an actress and comedienne. She was a wonderful woman," Keaton said on Instagram, adding "go back and watch her comedic work - man, was she great!!"

"Loved her so much," comedian Steve Martin wrote above a photo of Garr.

Outside of comedy, Garr also had memorable drama roles. For Close Encounters of the Third Kind, she played the wife of a man obsessed with UFOs (Richard Dreyfuss) in the Steven Spielberg science-fiction classic.

Garr said her sense of humour had helped her persevere through health challenges.

"It's absolutely critical," she told Reuters. "A sense of humour and attitude is the most important thing in everything."