Teri Garr speaks at the 15th annual Race to Erase MS event on May 2, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

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Teri Garr speaks at the 15th annual Race to Erase MS event on May 2, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

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Teri Garr, an actor and comedian who later became an ambassador for multiple sclerosis after her own diagnosis in 1999, died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles.. She was 79 years old and died from complications of multiple sclerosis.

Garr began her entertainment career as a dancer in nine Elvis Presley films including Long live Las Vegas And Klembake. She switched from dancing to acting with supporting roles Dr. Kildare, Batman, Star Trek, that girl, The Bob Newhart Show And Maud.

“She reached some of the heights of that period in terms of what was then considered quality TV,” said Kelly Kessler, an associate professor of media and film studies at DePaul University. “But then we see her emerge and make a natural transition from the early dance work she did in the Elvis films… to the television variety scene in the 1970s, where she performs with Cher and the Pointer Sisters.”

Garr starred in some of the biggest films of her time, including The conversation, Mister Mom, Oh God!And Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But her breakthrough role was just as sexy as Inga Young Frankenstein with Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks.

“And I think she got that role because she was just responding to a cattle call,” Kessler said.

Marty Feldman listens to Gene Wilders’ heart as Teri Garr watches in a scene from the film Young Frankenstein.

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Marty Feldman listens to Gene Wilders’ heart as Teri Garr watches in a scene from the film Young Frankenstein.

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Garr earned an Oscar nomination for her role as Dustin Hoffman’s neurotic girlfriend Sandy in the 1982 film Toetsie. Martie Cook, who teaches comedy at Emerson College, said Garr perfected and inverted a stereotype: “the smart, dumb blonde.” Her sad cleverness tempered the idiotic roles Garr often played.

“She had a vulnerability that really made the audience like her. I thought her performance as Sandy was just incredible,” Cook said. “By taking that character to another level, she actually helped open the door for roles like Phoebe Friends.“

Garr would appear later Friends as Phoebe Buffay’s biological mother. It was perfect casting, Cook said. “In a way, she had helped define that role for the writers of Phoebe.”

Teri Garr (right) played Lisa Kudrow’s mother on the hit ’90s sitcom Friends.

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Teri Garr (right) played Lisa Kudrow’s mother on the hit ’90s sitcom Friends.

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After her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis in 1999, Garr continued to work. The latter part of her career was a lot like the beginning, with small roles in major TV shows. After her memoir came out in 2005, Garr told WHYY’s Fresh air that her life as an actor had unexpectedly equipped her for life with a chronic illness.

“Because when you start in Hollywood, it’s 99% ‘get out of here!’ rejection and you must develop the skin of a rhinoceros,” said Garr “But you must always keep the spirit of a butterfly within.”

Garr may be “a comedic genius who has been overlooked by so many generations,” Kessler says. “If you weren’t there and didn’t pay attention to what she did in the ’70s and ’80s, you missed it.”