Lisa Kudrow Pays Emotional Tribute To 'Comedic Genius' Friends Guest Star Teri Garr
Lisa Kudrow has paid tribute to her former Friends co-star Teri Garr, who has died at the age of 79.
The two actors shared several scenes together in the long-running sitcom, in which Teri played Phoebe Buffay’s birth mother in three episodes across its third and fourth seasons.
After the news broke earlier this week that her on-screen birth mum had died, Lisa shared a touching tribute with People magazine, hailing the late performer as a “comedic acting genius”.
“Teri Garr was a comedic acting genius who was and is a huge influence on me and I know I’m not alone in that,” Lisa said. “I feel so lucky and grateful I got to work with Teri Garr.”
Although Friends fans will probably best remember Teri for her performance as Phoebe Abbott in the award-winning show, she had a number of other impressive on-screen credits to her name.
Teri’s breakthrough moment came in the late 1960s when she made a guest appearance in Star Trek, and her acting career went on to span six decades.
Her film work included Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Young Frankenstein, Dumb And Dumber and Pret-A-Porter, and she was also nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the comedy Tootsie.
She made the decision to retire from acting in 2011, having been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis around a decade earlier.
Teri died on Tuesday “surrounded by family and friends”, according to her representative. She is survived by her daughter, Molly O’Neil, and grandson Tyson.