Lisa Kudrow is memorializing fellow “Friends” alum Teri Garr, who died Tuesday at age 79.
Garr played Kudrow’s onscreen mom, Phoebe Abbott Sr., in the NBC sitcom, which ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004. She first appeared in the show’s Season 3 finale, “The One at the Beach,” wherein Phoebe Buffay (Kudrow) reconnects with her estranged birth mother (Garr) while on a group vacation.
Following the news of Garr’s death, Kudrow revealed the two also shared a connection offscreen.
“Teri Garr was a comedic acting genius who was and is a huge influence on me and I know I’m not alone in that,” she told People, adding that she felt “so lucky and grateful” to have worked with the Oscar nominee on “Friends.”
Garr reprised her role twice in the show’s fourth season, in “The One With the Jellyfish” and “The One With Phoebe’s Uterus,” both of which aired in 1998.
Fans widely lauded Garr’s guest appearances, with some calling her “perfectly cast” given her striking resemblance to Kudrow both in appearance and mannerisms — the latter of which is played up on “Friends.”
Garr, who is most famous for her comedic work in movies like “Young Frankenstein” (1974) and “Tootsie” (1982), died Tuesday from multiple sclerosis, her publicist Heidi Schaeffer confirmed to The Times.
The Hollywood-born actor first began noticing symptoms while filming “Tootsie,” Today reported, but she didn’t receive a formal diagnosis until 1999 — nearly two decades and 11 doctors later. In 2006, she released a memoir, “Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood,” about her illness.
“MS is a sneaky disease,” she writes in the book. “Like some of my boyfriends, it has a tendency to show up at the most awkward times and then to disappear entirely.”
Despite her condition, Garr continued working well into her 60s.
“Any time I saw her, no matter the struggles, she was always a blast!,” actor Marilu Henner said of the actor Tuesday on X.
Mel Brooks, who gave Garr her breakthrough role alongside Gene Wilder in “Young Frankenstein,” said the newcomer’s “humor and lively spirit made [the film].”
“Her ‘German’ accent had us all in stitches! She will be greatly missed,” Brooks said.
