By james art Garr made her Friends debut as Phoebe Abbott, the estranged birth mother of Phoebe Buffay Kudrow, in season 3, episode 25
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Lisa Kudrow (left) and Terry Garr
Lisa Kudrow pays tribute to her TV mother Terri Garr.
Shortly after news of Garr’s death broke on October 29, friends alum, 61, remembered the actress in a heartfelt statement to PEOPLE.
“Terry Garr was a comedic acting genius who was and is a huge influence on me, and I know I’m not alone in that,” she said. “I feel so lucky and grateful to have been able to work with Terry Garr.”
Related: Remembering Terry Garr’s Memorable Arc friends as Phoebe’s mother Buffy, following the actress’ death at age 79
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Lisa Kudrow and Terry Garr in Friends
Gar made his debut on friends as Phoebe Abbott, the estranged birth mother of Phoebe Buffay and Kudrow’s Ursula Buffay, in season 3, episode 25. She appeared in three episodes of the hit NBC series.
Garr first appeared in the season 3 finale in 1997, titled “The One at the Beach”, where Phoebe breaks away from the friend group’s trip to hook up with a woman who knows her parents. Later Phoebe discovers that the woman, Phoebe Abbott (Gar), is not just a friend of her parents, but her biological mother. Upon realizing, the two also noticed that they shared the same strange mannerisms.
Gar’s last two episodes came in season 4, with “The One with the Jellyfish” and “The One with Phoebe’s Uterus”, both airing in 1998.
“The One with the Jellyfish” (season 4 premiere) opened again with Phoebe in shock after learning her mother’s identity and telling her she never wants to see her again. This was short-lived, however, as Abbott tracked Phoebe down to Central Perk and the two officially reconciled.
In “The One with Phoebe’s Uterus”, Abbott helped Phoebe as she considered whether or not to be a surrogate for her brother Frank (Giovanni Ribisi) and sister-in-law Alice (Debra Jo Rupp). To do this, Abbott gave Phoebe a puppy to care for for three days to see how she would feel when she had to give him up. But things took a turn when Phoebe ended up wanting to keep the puppy, which was revealed to be Abbott’s pet.
Related: Terry Garr, Tutsi and Young Frankenstein Star, dies at 79
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Lisa Kudrow (left) and Terry Garr in Friends
Garr, best known for her comedic work in films such as 1974 Young Frankenstein and 1982 Tutsidied Tuesday, October 29, of multiple sclerosis.
Her publicist Heidi Schaefer told PEOPLE that Garr died “surrounded by family and friends.”
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The late actress first revealed in 2002 that she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the late 1990s. She first started noticing symptoms during filming One from the heart and Tutsi.
She later published a memoir, Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywoodin 2006, where she opened up about her illness. “MS is a sneaky disease,” she wrote in an excerpt published by PEOPLE. “Like some of my boyfriends, he tends to show up at the most inconvenient times and then disappear completely. It would take more than 20 years for doctors to figure out what was wrong. Sometimes they mentioned MS, but all the tests came back clear. Then the symptoms would go away and I would forget about it, somehow.
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Terry Garr
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Throughout her career, Garr is known for her comedic roles in films like Tutsi and Young Frankensteinand appeared in TV shows like McCloud, M*A*S*Z, The Bob Newhart Show, The odd couple, Mod and Barnaby Jones. She was also a host Saturday Night Live three times, in 1980, 1983 and 1985, and had roles in Casper meets Wendyon Designing women spinoff series The women in the house, Dick and Ghostly world.
Garr became a national ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and national chair of the Society’s Women Against MS program. She limited the number of projects she appeared in and retired from acting in 2011.
“It’s not in my nature to be late, but I have to,” she said Brain & Life Magazine in 2005. “Stress and anxiety and all that high-tension stuff is not good for MS.”
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