Teri Garr Movies
Teri Garr found early visibility with a mixture of dramatic and comic roles before maturing, so to speak, into her persona as a smart comedienne typecast as an eccentric ditz. Her warm, fluffy presence and great sense of timing made her a Hollywood mainstay, still finding regular work into her fifties, with her intelligence forever providing depth to a panoply of sweetly goofy supporting roles.The progeny of old-school, low-level industry types -- vaudevillian Eddie Garr and wardrobe mistress Phyllis Garr -- the actress was born as Terry Garr on December 11, 1949. She had launched into a professional dance career by age 13, working with the San Francisco ballet and joining a touring company of West Side Story. Her toes soon tapped her into the movies, providing her steady work during the 1960s in such films as The TAMI Show, What a Way to Go, and John Goldfarb Please Come Home, with her first actual appearance coming in the Elvis Presley vehicle Fun in Acapulco (1963). Her tiny speaking role in the 1968 Monkees movie Head brought her enough attention to land her work as a featured player in a handful of early-'70s television variety shows: The Ken Berry "Wow" Show, The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour, and The Sony and Cher Comedy Hour.
Francis Ford Coppola gave Garr her first major film role with 1974's The Conversation, where she played Amy, the girlfriend of Gene Hackman's surveillance man Harry Caul. With her next part, however, she proved herself impossible to pin down, going the opposite direction to play the riotously accented maidservant Inga in Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein (1974). From here she began a string of playing mothers and wives in high-profile films, few of which allowed her to dabble in her sillier side: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Oh, God! (1977), and The Black Stallion (1979). It wasn't until Tootsie in 1981 that she received full recognition for her talents and started to become identified with her knack for playing charmingly sweet airheads. She received her one and only Oscar nomination as Sandy, the neurotic soap actress.
Tootsie proved an early career peak for Garr; although she continued to get a decent amount of prominent film work (Mr. Mom, Miracles, Mom and Dad Save the World, Dumb and Dumber), she never again made the same forceful impression, keeping her plate full but slipping into the background. Garr became ubiquitous as a TV movie actress, ushering in a slightly more earnest period of her career, as well as a drop in prestige. With such projects as Stranger in the Family (1991), Deliver Them From Evil: The Taking of Alta View (1992), and Fugitive Nights: Danger in the Desert (1993), she could be counted on to tackle the hot-button topic of the week on network TV.
Although the '90s provided her few meaty movie roles, she did indeed thrive in television, including countless sitcom guest spots, as well as vocal work on the animated series Batman Beyond. Her most widely seen guest appearance was as the estranged birth mother of Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) on NBC's Friends. In addition to it being an uncanny case of casting by physical resemblance, Garr's character provided the perfect explanation for the source of Phoebe's wackiness. Garr also seemed to symbolically pass the torch to Kudrow, her heir apparent in lovable flightiness. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Joe Pytka's comedy stars Richard Dreyfuss as Trotter, a cab driver who gets a hot tip on a horse race and soon finds himself on the gambling hot streak of his life. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, David Johansen, (more)
Dave (John Lithgow), a meek, unassuming man who's the co-owner of a butcher shop, discovers his obnoxious business partner Ernie (Bruce McGill) dead in the meat locker. Dave thinks he might have accidentally locked Ernie in and caused his death. Much of the movie involves Dave's efforts to dispose of the corpse. He's aided in his efforts by the dead man's wife Sunny Cannald (Terry Garr), who used to be his girlfriend. Romance between the two is rekindled while Sunny tries to help Dave, meanwhile covering up a secret of her own. Complications are caused by the world's most incompetent private detective Randy Quaid), who Sunny had hired to get evidence that her husband was cheating on her. This somewhat disjointed black comedy got a "stiff" reception by most reviewers, despite the comic talents of the cast. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lithgow, Teri Garr, (more)
- 1988
Paul Reiser was still the star of the TV sitcom My Two Dads when he headlined this 60-minute video. Instead of the standard live-before-an-audience approach, Out on a Whim tells a self-contained story. Reiser, playing himself, is from time to time approached by an ethereal lady who wants to know all about "the real thing." Helping Reiser locate this mystery woman are such guest stars as Elliot Gould, Carrie Fisher, Terri Garr and Carol Kane. Out on a Whim was directed by Carl Gottleib, the actor/writer/director who penned the screenplay of Jaws. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Written by playwright Bill Bozzone, Full Moon in Blue Water stars Gene Hackman as Floyd, the owner of a small bar in a coastal Texas town. Floyd's emotional baggage is awesome: he has never recovered from the death of his wife, he is saddled with his senile father "The General" (Burgess Meredith), and creditors hound him at his fireside. Good-hearted bus driver Louise (Teri Garr) tries her best to offer moral and financial support, as does Floyd's right-hand man, former mental patient Jimmy (Elias Koteas). Strange and unexpected events follow, the upshot of which may leave Floyd even worse off than before. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Teri Garr, (more)
Adapted from the one-act play by Hugh Whitemore, Pack of Lies originally aired as a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation on April 26, 1987. Emmy-nominated Ellen Burstyn plays a Canadian housewife living in England, who dutifully allows a government agent (Alan Bates) into her house. The agent sets up a surveillance post in Burstyn's bedroom, ostensibly to keep close watch on a mysterious stranger. In truth, the agent is investigating Burstyn's neighbors Daniel Benzali and Terri Garr--who happen to be her best friends. Pack of Lies was based on a true story, which like its fictional counterpart coalesced into a melange of skewered ethics, deception and betrayal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
- PG
A doctor (Tom Conti) and his wife (Teri Garr), recently divorced, are kidnapped and brought to South America by an inept jewel thief (Paul Rodriguez), just in time to help cure a tribal chief's daughter of appendicitis. Then, a series of circumstances brings the entire family together. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1986
In this drama, a nurse, interred in a Vietnamese prison camp for ten years, is finally released and goes home with her Asian son. There she finds difficulty adjusting to society and the fact that her husband has found a new life and a lover to boot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
This 1985 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Teri Garr and features musical guests Dream Academy and the Cult. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teri Garr, Dream Academy, (more)
Martin Scorsese's After Hours is a dark, tragi-comic tale of a fish out of water, centering on an uptight, white-bread computer consultant from uptown Manhattan who finds himself in the nightmarish and incomprehensible (to him) world of Soho after dark. The ordeal begins when Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) gets lonely and decides to leave the posh East Side and search the Soho streets for some loving from Marcy (Rosanna Arquette), the pretty young woman he met in a downtown cafe. He has her phone number and works up the nerve to call. She wants to see him, and so Paul grabs $20, hails a taxi and sets out. The weirdness begins when he loses his money during the high-speed cab ride. His visit to Marcy's loft, where he meets her crazed artist roommate Kiki (Linda Fiorentino), is a disaster, as is his encounter with the beehive-wearing retro waitress Julie (Teri Garr). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, (more)
- 1985
Comedian Martin Mull's seminal mockumentary concerns the mundane trials and banal tribulations of a gaggle of Ohio suburbanites. All the hallmarks of middle-American culture are skewered: religion, excessive use of dairy products, crime, and family bickering. The cast includes Mull, Mary Kay Place, and Fred Willard. Harry Shearer of This Is Spinal Tap directs. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Teri Garr and Robert Wagner play a cafe owner and nightclub singer who vacation in Lisbon in 1940. They discover and attempt to waylay a Nazi plot to kidnap the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Roger O. Hirson wrote the teleplay, which he adapted from the novel by Harry Patterson (the pseudonym of Jack Higgins). ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1984
- PG13
A teenager and his kid brother spar with their mother's shady new boyfriend in this dramatic thriller from veteran British director Michael Apted. When her ex-husband remarries, Wendy (Teri Garr) feels despondent -- until she starts dating handsome, unctuous Sam (Peter Weller), an underemployed salesman with no shortage of big ideas. Excited to finally feel good about herself again, Wendy invites Sam to move in and offers to invest in his get-rich-quick schemes. None of this sits well with her sons, Jake (Christopher Collet) and Brian (Corey Haim), who remain unimpressed with Sam even after he convinces Wendy to buy Jake a motorbike. They're even less jazzed when Sam stops currying favor and turns disciplinarian even while pulling Wendy into his hard-partying lifestyle. Within a few months, Brian's on the verge of expulsion for picking fights at school, and even honor-role student Jake is mouthing off to his teachers. As for Wendy, she's too busy taking beatings and doing cocaine to notice that her family has fallen apart. It isn't until Jake gets wise to the industrial quantities of white powder squirreled away under the floorboards that he comes up with a plan to get Sam out of their lives forever. Although onetime Tiger Beat heartthrob Christopher Collet plays Firstborn's title role, the films' supporting cast is littered with actors whose stars would far eclipse his (Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert Downey Jr.) -- though in some cases only for a little while (Corey Haim). ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teri Garr, Peter Weller, (more)
Although penned by the same screenwriter, David S. Ward, this sequel to The Sting (1973) is tarnished by comparisons to its predecessor. Jackie Gleason fills the shoes of Paul Newman as Harry Gondorff and Mac Davis slips into the Robert Redford role of Johnny Hooker, two con men pals whose latest "sting" involves Hooker pretending to be a down on his luck boxer. Their goal is the fixing of a prizefight, which will rook a tacky nightclub owner (Karl Malden) out of a fortune while simultaneously getting revenge on their old nemesis, Doyle Lonnegan (Oliver Reed). On their side is Veronica (Teri Garr), a seasoned scam artist, but what Gondorff and Hooker don't know is that Lonnegan is manipulating events behind the scenes. Director Jeremy Paul Kagan followed up this terribly unfunny and inferior sequel with the much better received The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), while Ward became a director of such comedies as Major League (1989) and King Ralph (1991). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Gleason, Mac Davis, (more)
Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) is a Detroit automobile engineer unjustly fired by his boss. Jack's wife Caroline (Teri Garr) is compelled to get a job to make ends meet, and is soon hired on as an advertising executive in a firm run by the shifty Ron Richardson (Martin Mull. This leaves Jack at home doing the housework and taking care of the kids, which he discovers is a lot more complicated than he ever imagined. Moving from breadwinner to househusband doesn't do much for his self-esteem, and he bides his time playing poker for 10-cents-off coupons with a gaggle of neighborhood housewifes and pondering infidelity with dedicated homewrecker Joan (Ann Jillian). Among Keaton's fish-out-of-water bits: trying to maneuver a shopping cart with the inevitable wobbly wheels; and imagining a soap opera-cum-film noir episode in which he gives in to Joan's advances, only to be found out by Caroline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, (more)
- 1983
This 1983 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Teri Garr and features musical guest Mick Fleetwood's Zoo. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teri Garr, Mick Fleetwood, (more)
Only Kelly Reno and Teri Garr from the cast of the original Black Stallion make appearances in The Black Stallion Returns. In the first film, young Reno rescued his beloved stallion from its cruel Arab owner. This time around, the stallion is abducted by Moroccan henchmen and bundled back to Africa. This paves the way for a repeat of all the salient action from the first Black Stallion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelly Reno, Vincent Spano, (more)
- 1983
Michael de Guzman scripted this prettified TV-movie adaptation of John Steinbeck's gloomy 1961 novel The Winter of Our Discontent. Donald Sutherland stars as Ethan Hawkley, a solid citizen loved and respected by his family and by the citizens of his town. Ethan's loyalty and ethics will be tested to the snapping point by a huge bank loan, and by "other woman" Tuesday Weld. Hawkley eventually redeems himself, but it's a tight squeeze. Teri Garr costars in Winter of Our Discontent as Ethan's steadfast wife Mary. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Escape Artist represents the laudable directorial debut of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel. Griffin O'Neal, the real-life son of Ryan O'Neal, plays Danny Masters, the offspring of a famed magician. Determined to match his dad's accomplishment, Danny runs into nothing but trouble. His biggest mistake is picking the pocket of the son of a corrupt town mayor. When not running from adults, the boy is being exploited by them. A critic's favorite, Escape Artist has slowly built up a cult following over the years, thanks largely to its eclectic supporting cast, including Raul Julia, Desi Arnaz Jr., Joan Hackett, Teri Garr, Jackie Coogan, Huntz Hall and M. Emmet Walsh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Griffin O'Neal, Raul Julia, (more)
Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman), a brilliant but troublesome New York actor, has managed to alienate every producer on both coasts. Michael's agent George Fields (Sydney Pollack) can't even get his client a commercial since Michael complained that the tomato he was playing wasn't properly motivated. "You were a tomato!" screams George in desperation, adding that Michael is so obnoxious that he will probably never work again. Dorsey thinks otherwise; when he hears of an opening on a popular soap opera, he applies for the job--even though the job is for a woman. Posing as "Miss Dorothy Michaels," Michael wins the part and becomes a widely-known actress. Yet complications ensue when Michael falls for his co-star Julie (Jessica Lange, in an Oscar-winning performance) but, as Dorothy, is courted by Julie's widowed father (Charles Durning). Michael ultimately finds that his disguise as a woman has made him a better man. One of the classic comedies of the 1980s, Tootsie's gender-bending premise boasts a screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal, and by a host of memorable supporting comic performances from Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr, George Gaynes, and Bill Murray. Future Oscar-winner Geena Davis makes her screen debut as a daytime drama queen, which indeed she had been before Tootsie came along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, (more)
Based on Charles McCarry's 1979 novel The Better Angels, Wrong is Right is set in a near future in which violence has become something of a national sport and television news has fallen to tabloid depths (a significantly bigger stretch in 1982, when the film was released.) Star Sean Connery plays Patrick Hale, a globe-trotting reporter with access to a staggering array of world leaders. As the film opens, he has ventured to the Arab country of Hegreb to interview his old acquaintance, King Ibn Awad (Ron Moody). Awad has learned that the President of the United States (George Grizzard) may have issued orders for his removal; as a result, {%Awad) is apparently making arrangements to deliver two mini-nuclear devices -- each about the size of a small suitcase -- to a terrorist, with the intention of detonating them in Israel and the United States, unless the President resigns. In the intricate plot that unfolds, nothing is quite the way it seems, and Hale finds himself caught between political leaders, revolutionaries, CIA agents and other figures, trying to get to the bottom of it all. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, George Grizzard, (more)
After completing Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola initially planned for his next picture to be an intimate romantic musical shot on a low budget in Las Vegas. Three years later, One from the Heart had mushroomed into a big-budget spectacular, shot on strikingly stylized sets at his newly opened Zoetrope Studio and costing a then-massive $27 million. The story concerns Hank (Frederick Forrest) and Franny (Terri Garr), a working-class couple living on the outskirts of Las Vegas; after five years together, their relationship has fallen into a rut, and they both set off in search of new partners. Hank meets up with Leila (Nastassia Kinski), a beautiful high-wire artist, and Franny has a fling with Ray (Raul Julia), a dashing actor-waiter. But Hank and Franny still love each other, and their search for romance brings them back into each other's arms. Singer/songwriter Tom Waits received an Oscar nomination for his widely acclaimed song score, performed with country crooner Crystal Gayle. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, (more)
- 1982
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The Faerie Tale Theatre production of the classic fairy tale The Tale of the Frog Prince was adapted and directed by Monty Python alumnus Eric Idle and stars Robin Williams and Teri Garr. Williams plays a prince who is turned into a frog by a jilted fairy godmother. Garr is the princess who turns the frog back into prince with a kiss. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
