RIP Teri Garr, 79...

Teri Garr, star of ‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Tootsie,’ dead at 79

Teri Garr, an Oscar-nominated actress known for her work in films like “Young Frankenstein,” “Tootsie” and “Mr. Mom,” has died, according to her manager.

She was 79.

Garr died Tuesday in Los Angeles, more than twenty years after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, her manger Marc Gurvitz told CNN.

She first shared her diagnosis publicly in a 2002 interview with CNN in an effort raise awareness for others living with MS.

“I think everybody is scared and frightened when they hear something like that,” Garr recalled of first learning her diagnosis, after visiting 11 doctors and experiencing years of symptoms they couldn’t explain. “That’s because there’s so much – you know, there’s not a lot of information out there about it. And a lot of people don’t know that it’s not that bad. I mean, I’m going on with my life.”

The daughter of a Broadway performer and a Rockette, Garr studied dance growing up and began auditioning soon after she graduated from high school in Los Angeles. Her earliest credits include dancing and appearing as an extra in films like Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas.”

“I finally asked myself, Why am I not in the front?” Garr later reflected. “I didn’t study all those years to be in the back and get no money.”

The 1970s proved to be a prolific time for Garr, who apppeared on several episodes of the sketch comedy series “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour,” “The New Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Odd Couple” and “The Bob Newhart Show,” among many others.

Her big break came in 1974, when she starred as Inga in the Mel Brooks-directed comedy hit “Young Frankenstein” alongside Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman.

Two years later, Garr appeared in one of her most notable roles when she played Ronnie Neary, a wife trying to understand her husband’s (Richard Dreyfuss) inexplicable obsession as the result of an alien encounter, in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 sci-fi epic “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

In “Tootsie,” Garr played a put-upon struggling actress who was dating Dustin Hoffman‘s protagonist who in turn goes on to great fame pretending to be a woman on a soap opera. The role scored Garr a nomination for best supporting actress at the 1983 Academy Awards.

“I was proud,” Garr wrote of the nomination in her 2005 memoir, “Speedbumps: Flooring it Through Hollywood.” “The Academy not only knew I existed, they thought I was good!”

Also in 1983, she played advertising executive Caroline Butler in the rousing family comedy “Mr. Mom” alongside Michael Keaton.

In a 2012 interview, Garr said she was not surprised two of her most memorable roles dealt with breaking stereotypes about gender norms.

“I resent it when they write the part of a woman who’s just a sexy femme fatale who seduces people to ger her way, perpetrating the myth that that’s how woman have to operate, instead of using their brains or their wit,” Garr reflected.