Dustin Hoffman is speaking out in memory of his Tootsie co-star Teri Garr after he death at the close of October. According to PEOPLE, the legendary actor shared a statement with the New York Post that paid respects to Garr.
“Teri was brilliant and singular in all she did, and had a heart of gold,” Hoffman’s statement said. “Working with her was one of the great highs. There was no one like her.”
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Garr had been dealing with multiple sclerosis since 2002, passing from the disease “surrounded by family and friends.” The actress made her mark in films like Mr. Mom, Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Tootsie, earning an Academy Award for her performance alongside Hoffman.
The actress also might be known to younger audiences for her role on Friends as Phoebe’s long-absent mother. Her career took a sharp turn after her MS diagnosis, with the actress detailing her situation in her 2006 memoir, Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood.
“MS is a sneaky disease. Like some of my boyfriends, it has a tendency to show up at the most awkward times and then disappear entirely. It would take over 20 years for doctors to figure out what was wrong,” she wrote. “Sometimes they mentioned MS, but all the tests came back clear. Then the symptoms would fade away and I’d forget about it, sort of.
“Whatever this MS was, the industry wanted no part of it,” she continued. “At first I was outraged. Whatever was going on in my body had been going on for years. It never got in the way of my work. Then I started thinking the job offers disappeared because I stunk as an actress. It was a tough trio: mysterious symptoms, my insecurities about my acting ability, and the reality of being an ‘aging’ actress.”
