Berliner Tageblatt - 'Tootsie' star Teri Garr dies aged 79

NYSE - LSE
CMSC -0.61% 21.44 $
CMSD -0.28% 21.63 $
BCC 0.91% 85.53 $
BCE 3.55% 23.37 $
RIO -0.91% 100.99 $
JRI 0% 12.73 $
NGG 0.98% 80.27 $
BP 0.65% 43.16 $
BTI -0.42% 56.81 $
GSK -2.48% 50.9 $
RBGPF 2.16% 72.16 $
RYCEF -1.75% 20.54 $
AZN -1.99% 158.75 $
RELX -0.71% 35.37 $
VOD 0.94% 15.9 $
'Tootsie' star Teri Garr dies aged 79
'Tootsie' star Teri Garr dies aged 79 / Photo: © Getty Images North America/Getty Images/AFP/File

'Tootsie' star Teri Garr dies aged 79

Teri Garr, nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in the 1982 hit film "Tootsie," died Tuesday in Los Angeles, her publicist said.

Text size:

Garr, 79, passed away after a decades-long battle with multiple sclerosis, Heidi Schaeffer told AFP.

A comedic actress and singer, Garr also co-starred in "Young Frankenstein" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic auto-immune inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, its symptoms characterized by muscle weakness and blurred vision.

The disease afflicts about twice as many women as men -- typically between the ages of 20 and 40.

Garr revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2002, after having suffered symptoms for the previous two decades.

She was a "fierce advocate for MS awareness," said Schaeffer.

Garr "passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and friends," the publicist added.

W.Lapointe--BTB