Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites as “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has died. She was 79. Known for her comedic roles in film and television she received nominations for an Academy Award, and a British Academy Film Award. Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis surrounded by family and friends. She battled other health problems in recent years and underwent an operation in January 2007 to repair an aneurysm.

Garr was raised primarily in North Hollywood, California. She was the third child of a comedic-actor father and a studio costumer mother. In her youth, Garr trained in ballet and other forms of dance. She began her career as a teenager with small roles in television and film in the early 1960s, including appearances as a dancer in six Elvis Presley musicals. She studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City. She had her big break appearing in an episode of Star Trek, “Assignment Earth”. Garr was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her comedic role as an acting student in  Tootsie (1982).

She is known for her roles in Francis Ford Coppola’s thriller The Conversation  (1974) and One from the Heart (1982), Mel Brooks’s comedy Young Frankenstein (1974), Steven Spielberg’s science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Martin Scorsese’s black comedy After Hours (1985). She also acted in the comedy films Oh, God! (1977), Mr. Mom (1983), Dumb and Dumber  (1994), Michael (1996) and Ghost World (2001). Garr was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her comedic role as an acting student in Tootsie (1982). She is known for her roles in Francis Ford Coppola’s thriller The Conversation (1974) and One from the Heart (1982), Mel Brooks’s comedy Young Frankenstein (1974), Steven Spielberg’s science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Martin Scorsese’s black comedy After Hours (1985). She also acted in the comedy films Oh, God! (1977), Mr. Mom (1983), Dumb and Dumber (1994), Michael (1996) and Ghost World (2001).

In the late 1990s, Garr landed a role as recurring character Phoebe Abbott in Friends, the estranged birth mother of Phoebe Buffay. She retired from acting in 2011. In 2006, Garr published an autobiography,  Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood, which details her career and health struggles after her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. In the early 1980s, Garr was in a seven-year relationship with film executive Roger Birnbaum, followe y a 7 year relationship with physician John O’Neil. Garr married  building contractor John O’Neil, and that same year, in November, they were present when their adopted daughter Molly O’Neil was born. The couple divorced in 1996.