Dustin Hoffman is mourning his late “Tootsie” co-star, Teri Garr.
“Teri was brilliant and singular in all she did, and had a heart of gold,” Hoffman, 87, said in a statement given to The Post on Tuesday. “Working with her was one of the great highs. There was no one like her.”
Garr died Tuesday morning in Los Angeles after a long battle with multiple sclerosis, her publicist, Heidi Schaeffer, confirmed to The Post.
Garr played Hoffman’s friend and sometimes-love interest, Sandy Lester, in the 1982 movie, “Tootsie.” She received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her work.
“I was proud. The academy not only knew I existed, they thought I was good!” Garr wrote of the Academy Award nod in her 2005 memoir, “Speedbumps: Flooring it Through Hollywood.”
Garr recalled Hoffman being in her corner while working on “Tootsie,” speaking to AV Club in 2008.
Explaining that she was hesitant to take a supporting role when she had just played the lead in the movie, “One From The Heart,” Garr revealed that director Sydney Pollack talked her into taking the job.
“He said, ‘We’re going to make it funny. It’s gonna be really good, and we’re gonna take any ideas you have,’” she recalled. “So I started writing stuff about her right away—about Sandy Lester—and he let me do it. And I loved that.”
“Dustin had beaten him into submission, so he’d say, ‘If you have an idea, tell Sydney,’” Garr added of Hoffman. “So I said, ‘Put the camera over there, and I’m going to rush out of the bathroom and say, ‘What’s the matter with you people? I’ve been in there for a half an hour screaming! Doesn’t anybody care?’ That was a good part in the movie, right? And I made that up.”
In addition to the Sydney Pollack classic, the comedy legend was known for her role in Mel Brooks’ 1974 comedy “Young Frankenstein,” though her resume extend far beyond those two iconic performances.
After cutting her teeth in TV on shows such as “Star Trek,” “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” and “The New Dick Van Dyke Show,” Garr followed up her star-making turn in “Young Frankenstein” with roles in Francis Ford Coppola’s thriller “The Conversation” and Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
The actress continued working up until 2011, when she starred in the TV film “How To Marry a Billionaire.”
In 2002, Garr revealed that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
“I really didn’t think there was any reason to come out and say anything about it,” she told CNN’s Larry King at the time. “I think now, the good news is there is a lot of good medicine out there.”
Garr suffered a brain aneurysm in 2006, which left her in a coma for a week, though she was able to return to acting after her recovery.
Garr is survived by her daughter, Molly O’Neil, 30, and grandson, Tyryn, 6.
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