Teri Garr

The daughter of a vaudevillian and a dancer, Teri Garr (born Dec. 11, 1949, in Lakewood, Ohio) started her showbiz career at age 13 when she made her professional debut with the San Francisco Ballet Co. From there, she danced her way through nine Elvis Presley flicks in the '60s.

Garr's first significant film role, however, didn't come until 1974, when she played Gene Hackman's girlfriend in The Conversation. Proving her versatility, she next played the heavily accented maid Inga in Mel Brooks's relentlessly silly Young Frankenstein.

Garr's visibility peaked in the late '70s and early '80s when she played the wife or mother in a string of Hollywood blockbusters (including Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and received an Oscar nod for her performance in Tootsie (1982). In recent years, Garr has become a regular presence on TV, including a recurring role on the sitcom "Friends."

Filmography