Teri Garr

Successful, offbeat, blonde leading lady and supporting player, best known for her ditzy comedic roles. Garr began her career as a background dancer in nine Elvis Presley musicals and on several TV variety shows including "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" and "Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour". She made her screen acting debut in "Head" (1968), a would-be psychedelic comedy scripted by Jack Nicholson and starring The Monkees. Garr first began to get noticed in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation", as Gene Hackman's wife and for her portrayal of the curvaceous lab assistant in Mel Brooks' gothic romp "Young Frankenstein" (both 1974).

Garr's kooky charm and alternately whiny and deadpan delivery were put to superb use in comedies and adapted well to several dramas. She played a frazzled but loyal wife to John Denver's suburban Moses in "Oh, God!" (1977). That same year, she was fine in a more complexly shaded role in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as the increasingly troubled wife of Richard Dreyfus who cannot deal with her husband's growing obsession with alien visitors. Garr was Dustin Hoffman's on-again off-again girlfriend in "Tootsie" (1982), a frustrated actress with a heavy inferiority complex who finally gets to blow off steam; the performance earned her an Oscar nomination. She landed a rare romantic lead in Coppola's off-beat musical romance "One From the Heart" (1982) and was a confused divorcee with two children who shacks up with a cocaine dealer in the credible but disturbing drama "Firstborn" (1984).

Critically Garr fared better than her co-stars in the otherwise panned sequel "The Sting II" (1982) and stood out amid the weird ensemble of night habitues Griffin Dunne encounters in Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" (1985). Along with many other Hollywood actors she got to play herself in Robert Altman's black comedy "The Player" (1992) and once again displayed her comedic skills in a small role in the Jim Carrey vehicle "Dumb and Dumber" (1994).

Besides her short-lived TV series "Good & Evil" (1991), Garr has made numerous TV appearances in recent years showing up on a number of award shows, children and comedy specials, TV movies, and has been a frequent guest of David Letterman.

• Also Credited As:
  Terri Garr, Terry Ann Garr, Terry Garr
• Born:
  December 11, 1944 in Lakewood, Ohio
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Dancer

Education

• Actors Studio, New York, New York

Milestones

• 1956 Family moved to the San Fernando Valley after father's death (date approximate)
• 1968 First screen speaking part, "Head"
• 1974 First gained film recognition in "The Conversation"
• 1976 TV-movie acting debut, "Law and Order"
• 1982 Earned Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance as Dustin Hoffman's actress girlfriend in "Tootsie"
• 1986 Debut in a TV miniseries, "Fresno"
• 1991 Starred in the short-lived sitcom, "Good and Evil"
• 1994 Co-starred in the CBS series, "Women of the House"
• 1999 Portrayed the lonely mother of a teenager who inadvertently becomes enmeshed in the Watergate scandal in the satirical "Dick"
• Appeared in TV shows including "Star Trek" and "It Takes a Thief"; became semi-regular performer on "The Sonny and Cher Show" (1972), "Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour" (1973), "The Girl With Something Extra" (1973) and "The Sonny and Cher Revue" (1974)
• Appeared in commercials for Crest, Joy, Folger's coffee, Tide and Cheer
• Appeared in the original road company of "West Side Story"
• Danced the frug and the shimmy on "Shindig" and appeared in nine Elvis Presley movies as a dancer
• Grew up in New Jersey
• Professional dancing debut, with the San Francisco Ballet