Known for her comedic roles in film and television in the 1970s and 1980s,[5][6] she often played women struggling to cope with the life-changing experiences of their husbands, children or boyfriends.

She began her career as a teenager with small roles in television and film in the early 1960s, including appearances as a dancer in nine Elvis Presley musicals.

[4] After spending two years attending college, Garr left Los Angeles and studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City.

She later acted in films such as Martin Scorsese's black comedy After Hours (1985), Let It Ride (1989), Dumb and Dumber (1994), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Michael (1996) and Ghost World (2001).

[9][10][b] She spent her early years in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and Lakewood, Ohio, before her family settled in Los Angeles.

[a][3][11][12] Her father, Eddie Garr (born Edward Leo Gonnoud),[7]: 68  was a vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor, whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road.

[13] Her mother, Phyllis Lind Garr (born Emma Schmotzer),[7]: 68  was a dancer, a Rockette, wardrobe mistress, and model.

During her senior year, she auditioned for the cast of the Los Angeles road company production of West Side Story, where she met one of the most important people in her early career, David Winters, who became her friend, dance teacher, and mentor.

"[19] She often appeared on television during this time, performing as a go-go dancer on several musical variety shows, along with friend Toni Basil, such as Shindig!

"Star Trek was the first job where I had a fairly big (for me) speaking part," Garr related in her memoir, "I played Roberta Lincoln, a dippy secretary in a pink and orange costume with a very short skirt.

[25] Garr appeared in a string of highly successful films in the mid-to-late 1970s, including a supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola's thriller The Conversation (1974).

[27] She then appeared in a dramatic role in Steven Spielberg's science-fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as the wife of Richard Dreyfuss's character;[26] in Oh, God!

[26] In 1978, Garr appeared off-Broadway in a production of One Crack Out by Canadian playwright David French, playing the wife of Charlie, a pool hustler in Toronto.

[28] Richard Eder of The New York Times noted that Garr "manages an attractive uncertainty and devotion as Charlie's wife.

[31] In the 1970s, Garr had a recurring role on McCloud, and appeared on M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, The Odd Couple, Maude, Barnaby Jones, and Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers.

[citation needed] Garr had several prominent dramatic roles on television in the 1980s, starring opposite Donald Sutherland in an adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent (1983), in the parody miniseries Fresno (1986), and opposite Ellen Burstyn in an adaptation of the play Pack of Lies (1987), which earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama or Comedy Special.

[37] Garr's career began to slow in the late 1990s after a neurologist informed her that symptoms she had been experiencing for many years were those of multiple sclerosis.

[32] Garr returned to the stage in the fall of 2000, appearing in numerous off-Broadway performances of The Vagina Monologues opposite Sanaa Lathan and Julianna Margulies.

[43] In 2006, Garr published an autobiography, Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood, which details her career and health struggles after her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

[6] Garr appeared on The Moth Radio Hour broadcast of December 9, 2009, to tell a humorous reminiscence, "Wake Up Call".

[56] After years of uncertainty and secrecy about her diagnosis, Garr explained her reasons for deciding to go public: I'm telling my story for the first time so I can help people.

The same year, she revealed her treatment regimen for the disease, which included regular steroid injections to help manage symptoms.

[59] The aneurysm left her in a coma for a week,[43] but after therapy, she regained speech and motor skills, and in 2008 she appeared on Late Show with David Letterman to promote Expired, a 2007 film in which she played one of a set of twins.

[60] Garr died from complications of multiple sclerosis at her home in Los Angeles surrounded by family and friends, on October 29, 2024, at the age of 79.

[64] Her Tootsie co-star Dustin Hoffman released a statement in part reading "Teri was brilliant and singular in all she did, and had a heart of gold.