Inside Teri Garr’s Battle With MS: How the Late Actress Kept Her Positivity Throughout Health Journey

Teri Garr danced with Elvis Presley in five movies, including Viva Las Vegas. She partied with the Beatles in London, made a movie with the Monkees and appeared in comedy sketches on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour — all before Young Frankenstein made her a star in her own right in 1974.

A child of showbiz, Teri, who died on October 29 at age 79, gave even her ditziest, most neurotic roles depth. In Tootsie, which earned her a 1983 Academy Award nomination, her jilted character, Sandy, expresses relatable exasperation to Dustin Hoffman. “I never said, ‘I love you.’ I don’t care about ‘I love you,’” she roared, unleashing her frustration. “I just don’t like to be lied to!”

Teri first began noticing odd physical symptoms — including tingling, tripping, muscle weakness and fatigue — around the time she filmed Tootsie. “Every movie I did, I’d go see a different doctor in the location where we were shooting, and every one had a different opinion about what it might be,” she said. “Every so often someone would mention MS, but then someone else would think it was something else.”

She finally received the correct diagnosis in 1999 and went public with her condition two years later. “I think some people want you to be upset,” she said. “Not only am I not upset, but I’m OK. I don’t see any profit in being down; I don’t see that it gets you anywhere.”

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Teri Garr Was Always a Fighter

When her father, an ex-vaudeville performer, died when Teri was 11, her mother, who had been a Rockette, supported their family as a studio costumer. “I saw my mother be this incredibly strong, creative woman who put three kids through college — one of my brothers is a surgeon,” said Teri. “We always had to try harder.”

Trained as a dancer, Teri liked to tell the story of how she refused to be cut from auditions for a touring company of West Side Story early in her career. “I was convinced that they didn’t choose me because I smiled too much,” recalled Teri, who brazenly returned for a second audition she wasn’t invited to. “So I went to the callback, and I was cast as a Jet girl.”

That moxie also helped when she appeared in Pajama Party, a 1964 Annette Funicello beach-party film. When the assistant director asked for a volunteer to do a stunt dive for extra money, Teri raised her hand. “I’d never done a dive in my life, much less a stunt,” she said. “It ended in the most painful belly flop of my life. [But] when I got the $250, it felt like winning a prize.”

Teri Garr Never Lost Her Positivity

Teri’s career hit its stride in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in her acclaimed performance in Tootsie. She hosted SNL three times and became a favorite guest star of both Johnny Carson and David Letterman. “I liked being in front of the live studio audience,” she confessed.

She turned her attention to her personal life in the 1990s when she wed building contractor John O’Neil and adopted her daughter, Molly. The marriage only lasted three years, but motherhood agreed with Teri. “I try to reserve the top-notch time, my best energy, for her,” she said.

Spending quality time together took on greater importance after Teri was diagnosed with MS. The actress had grown up with a chronically ill father, so she wanted to spare Molly those feelings of helplessness and uncertainty. But in the end, Teri felt that Molly may have benefited from her illness. “She really appreciates life, and she’s really kind to people,” said Teri. “She’s very compassionate.”

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Hollywood was less considerate to Teri — especially at first. “The initial inquiries about my health ranged from caring to catty,” she said. “The gossip had an immediate and devastating effect on my career. … My work opportunities fell off a cliff.”

She found an unexpected next chapter within the MS community. Teri became an ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and national chair for the society’s Women Against MS program. “For the first time in my life, I got to play myself all the time,” said the actress, who addressed audiences with her characteristic combination of humor and directness. “Hopefully, my stories would help other people with MS connect, and make them smile. I thought I could show what a difference a positive attitude could make.”

In 2005, she released a memoir, Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood.

Teri never lost that positive attitude, even when life threw more curveballs her way. She suffered a brain aneurysm in 2006 that put her in a coma for a week, but eventually she recovered her ability to walk and talk. “We don’t make the rules,” Teri reasoned. “One of the only things we can control about any affliction — and life in general — is our attitude toward dealing with it.”