RIP Teri Garr, America's Girl Next Door

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It’s sad, those occasions when an actor or actress we remember fondly from our youth passes away.

I first saw Teri Garr on “Star Trek,” the original and still the best version. She played “Roberta Lincoln” in the second-season 1968 episode “Assignment: Earth,” and the seven-year-old me immediately found this young actress with the miniskirt and the girl-next-door vibe quite fetching (I was a precocious little guy). She went on to appear in such films as “Oh, God,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Tootsie” as well as in Mel Brook’s masterwork “Young Frankenstein.”

I was therefore saddened to read on Tuesday morning that Teri Garr has passed away at 79 years of age after a prolonged battle with multiple sclerosis.

An influential performer to comedians including Tina Fey, Garr was a familiar face in dozens of TV shows and films of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. The actress revealed in 2002 that she had been diagnosed with MS, and she suffered an aneurysm in 2006.

After starting her career as a dancer, Garr first gained attention as Inga, the saucy assistant in Mel Brooks’ 1974 “Young Frankenstein,” who greeted Gene Wilder’s Dr. Frederick Frankenstein with the memorable “Vould you like to have a roll in ze hay?”

On “Friends,” she played Phoebe Abbot in three episodes in 1997 and 1998.

Teri Garr may not have been as flashy and dramatic as today’s A-list celebrities. She maintained her private life as private and didn’t often speak out on the day’s issues, although she was an early advocate for having women in acting paid as much as men for similar roles. But for the most part, Teri just showed up and always turned in a great performance from the very start.

And, despite being what I would consider quite a beauty, she didn’t depend on her looks for parts – although she wasn’t above playing on certain of her… assets, to comic effect. Mel Brooks was quick to recognize Miss Garr’s comedic talent and used it to good effect. Casting her alongside the geniuses of Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, and Madeline Kahn was a great filmmaking coup.

Teri often played the long-suffering spouse to main characters beset by odd events, as when she played opposite Richard Dreyfuss in the 1977 film ”

Close Encounters of the Third Kind” or John Denver in the lighthearted 1977 movie “Oh God.” I saw both of those films in the theater – in those long-ago days, that was the only way to see them – and I attended in no small part because of Teri Garr’s presence.

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Teri Garr’s legacy includes:

She published an autobiography, “Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood,” in 2006.

She is survived by her daughter, Molly O’Neil, and grandson Tyryn.

Farewell, Teri. I’ll always remember you as you were when I first saw you – young, beautiful, with a lopsided smile, a down-to-earth charm, and a great talent. We’ll miss you – but now, in this modern world, we can always go back and see you how you were.