“Tootsie” actress Teri Garr passed away on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at just 79 years old.
In a statement shared with NBC News, her longtime friend and publicist, Heidi Schaeffer, revealed that she died “peacefully surrounded by family and friends” after a 25-year battle with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Garr first revealed her MS diagnosis in 2002, but she had been experiencing symptoms for nearly 20 years prior to that.
According to the Associated Press, her symptoms began in 1983 when she started experiencing “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg, which eventually spread to her right arm.
MS is an “unpredictable disease of the central nervous system” that “disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body,” according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS).
Symptoms of MS include fatigue, memory difficulties, mood changes, mobility issues, numbness, pain, tingling, and vision impairment, says the NMSS.
It took Garr 16 years to receive a diagnosis
Garr saw nearly a dozen doctors over the next 16 years before finally receiving her MS diagnosis in 1999.
The “Young Frankenstein” actress went three more years without telling anyone, but finally revealed the diagnosis during a 2002 interview with CNN’s Larry King.
“I would run, jog in the park, and I just started tripping. It was just like my toe — I would start to trip, and then that would go away. Then I would get some tingling in my arm,” she said at the time.
In 2005, she gave fans even more insight into her life with MS in her autobiography titled, “Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood.” She later became a spokesperson for the NMMS.
In a 2008 report by the Los Angeles Times, Garr revealed that she had to walk with a brace on her leg to treat her limp, as a result of MS. She also received injections and steroids to slow its progression.
“When you hear the word ‘disabled,’ people immediately think about people who can’t walk or talk or do everything that people take for granted,” Garr said, according to the LA Times.
“Now, I take nothing for granted. But I find the real disability is people who can’t find joy in life and are bitter,” she added.
As if MS wasn’t enough, Garr was rushed to the hospital in 2006 after her daughter, Molly O’Neil, was struggling to wake her up from a nap.
By the time she got to the hospital, doctors were treating her for a brain aneurysm that nearly killed her.
According to Cleveland Clinic, a brain aneurysm is “a bulge in a weak area of a blood vessel in or around your brain.” If the bulge grows too large, it can burst and cause life-threatening bleeding around the brain.
“They drilled a hole in my head and wrapped a coil around my brain so it wouldn’t bleed anymore,” she told the LA Times in 2008.
The American Stroke Association estimates that there’s a 40% chance of death once it starts to bleed.
The aneurysm left Garr in a week-long coma before undergoing rehab for two months. She not only had to learn to walk again, but also how to talk and think.
In an interview with Closer Weekly in 2022, Garr described her health issues as an “odd gift.”
“I just don’t see the point of wallowing in it. It’s just a waste of time,” she said. “It makes you stop and settle down and focus.”
Garr’s screen career spanned six decades. One of her last roles on TV was of Lindsey’s mom in “How to Marry a Billionaire,” which was released in 2011.
