Teri Garr

Terry Ann "Teri" Garr (born December 11, 1947) is an American actress, comedienne, dancer and voice artist. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1982 film Tootsie. Her other film roles include Young Frankenstein (1974); Oh, God! (1977); Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977); The Black Stallion (1979); Mr. Mom (1983) and After Hours (1985). She also appeared as Phoebe Abbott in three episodes of the sitcom Friends (1997–98).

Early life

Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio. Her father, Eddie Garr (born Edward Leo Gonnoud), was a vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road. He changed his surname before Teri's birth. Her mother, Phyllis Lind (née Emma Schmotzer), was a dancer, a Rockette, wardrobe mistress, and model. Her father was of Irish descent and her maternal grandparents were Austrian immigrants.

Career

Early in her career she was credited as Terri Garr, Terry Garr, Teri Hope, or Terry Carr. Her movie debut was as an extra in A Swingin' Affair (1963). At the end of her senior year in high school (at Magnificat High School) 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, her dance teacher, and her mentor and cast her in many of his early movies and projects.