'Tootsie' star Teri Garr dies aged 79 / Photo: FREDERICK M. BROWN - Getty Images North America/Getty Images/AFP/File
'Tootsie' star Teri Garr dies aged 79
Teri Garr, nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in the 1982 hit film "Tootsie," died Tuesday in Los Angeles, her publicist said.
Garr, 79, passed away after a decades-long battle with multiple sclerosis, Heidi Schaeffer told AFP.
A comedic actress and singer, Garr also co-starred in "Young Frankenstein" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Multiple sclerosis is a chronic auto-immune inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, its symptoms characterized by muscle weakness and blurred vision.
The disease afflicts about twice as many women as men -- typically between the ages of 20 and 40.
Garr revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2002, after having suffered symptoms for the previous two decades.
She was a "fierce advocate for MS awareness," said Schaeffer.
Garr "passed away peacefully, surrounded by family and friends," the publicist added.
G.Yassin--CdE
