‘We all loved you’: What was Teri Garr’s cause of death?

Teri Garr passed away on Oct. 29, 2024, and fans of the actress, a staple comedienne of Hollywood since she began her career in the 1960s, are grieving.

Whether you loved her most as ambitious Caroline Butler in Mr. Mom opposite Michael Keaton (one of my fave movies as a kid), as Inga in Young Frankenstein, or as actress Sandy Lester in Tootsie, you likely remember her friendly energy and huge smile. This is a monumental loss, that’s for sure. So, before I go rewatch Mr. Mom (and laugh at the scene when Doris exclaims “you don’t feed a baby chili!”), let’s find out how this wonderful actress died.

How did Teri Garr die?

Garr died from multiple sclerosis, as Heidi Schaeffer, her publicist, explained to People. Her life was never the same after she told Larry King in 2002 that she suffered from this illness, and in 2006, she had a brain aneurysm. Although she had surgery and thankfully survived, M.S. is a tragic disease whose serious impact can’t be ignored.

According to John Hopkins Medicine, those with the autoimmune disease often experience symptoms such as feeling unsteady, feeling numb, having trouble with their eyesight, dealing with tremors, and having trouble speaking, among a few others. You might be given a walker or cane and begin taking medication. Tragically, you can’t get rid of M.S., and there are many people like Garr who struggle for several years or decades.

Before her last role in the TV movie How to Marry a Billionaire, which aired in 2011, Garr appeared on the game show Hollywood Squares in the early 2000s and had a handful of TV parts. But it was her movie roles, like Ronnie Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and, of course, Young Frankenstein, Mr. Mom, and Tootsie that people will remember her for.

Garr’s fans grieved the actress on X, with one writing “We all loved you” and others praising her talent and also her caring personality.

Like other stars who have spoken about living with M.S., such as Selma Blair and Christina Applegate, Garr discussed her health often. But in 2003, she said she didn’t want to talk about it at first because “I was afraid that I wouldn’t get work” because “People hear MS and think, ‘Oh, my God, the person has two days to live.’” She learned she had M.S. in 1999, but she had dealt with symptoms since 1983. She continued acting until 2011, and shared in 2005 that doing Pilates several times a week was useful for her condition.

The actress kept her sense of humor and self-deprecating nature when discussing the low point she reached in her career after she had been sick for a while. According to Brain & Life, she said, “When things slowed down, it was either the MS or that I’m a stinking actress, so I chose to believe it’s the MS.”

Garr was so lovely because she didn’t shy away from speaking up when she knew it mattered. According to Cultural Daily, in 1982, she said, “I’d like to solve world hunger, make world peace, stop nuclear power, get great gun control laws, better prison reforms. I would like Equal Rights for women.” Several decades have passed since then, but we still need all those things! She was a smart, thoughtful, and passionate star who opened up about her political beliefs, her health struggles, and her approach to her career, and no one will forget her.