Teri Garr, Oscar-nominated star of 'Tootsie' and 'Young Frankenstein,' dies at 79

Academy Award-nominated comedy actress Teri Garr, whose sunny personality lit up the screen in films such as "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," died on Tuesday at age 79.

Garr, who earned an Oscar nomination for her role opposite Dustin Hoffman in the 1982 gender-swap comedy "Tootsie," died in Los Angeles from complications of multiple sclerosis, publicist Heidi Schaeffer said.

The actor disclosed in 2002 that she had been diagnosed with MS after experiencing symptoms for some two decades. She became an advocate for MS research and treatment. In 2007, Garr underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm and was confined to a wheelchair for a time.

"I had to learn to walk again, to talk again, and to think again, which I'm not even sure is necessary in Hollywood," she joked in an interview with Reuters in 2008.

Teri Ann Garr was born on December 11, 1944, in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio, to show-business parents: Her father, Eddie, was a vaudeville performer and actor who appeared on Broadway, and her mother, Phyllis, danced at New York's Radio City Music Hall as one of the Rockettes.

After attending college in Los Angeles, Garr moved to New York City to pursue a career in ballet and then in acting, studying at the famed Actors Studio in Manhattan.

Some of her earliest credits included work as a background dancer in Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas."

After roles on TV shows such as Star Trek and Batman, Mel Brooks cast Garr as a German lab assistant in the 1974 film Young Frankenstein.

FILE PHOTO: Filmmaker and comedian Mel Brooks and actress Cloris Leachman (R) greet actress Teri Garr at a 40th anniversary screening of "Young Frankenstein" at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn theatre in Beverly Hills, California September 9, 2014. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)/File Photo

"Her humor and lively spirit made the 'Young Frankenstein' set a pleasure to work on," Brooks wrote on X on Tuesday. "Her 'German' accent had us all in stitches! She will be greatly missed."

Michael Keaton, who starred with Garr in "Mr. Mom," also paid tribute.

"Forget about how great she was as an actress and comedian. She was a wonderful woman," Keaton said on Instagram, adding, "Go back and watch her comedic work. Was she great?!"

"Loved her so much," comedian Steve Martin wrote above a photo of Garr.

Outside of comedy, Garr also had memorable drama roles. For "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," she played the wife of a man obsessed with UFOs (Richard Dreyfuss) in the Steven Spielberg science-fiction classic.

Garr said her sense of humor had helped her persevere through health challenges.

"It's critical," she told Reuters. "A sense of humor and attitude is the most important thing in everything."