Lisa Kudrow is remembering her late TV mom, Teri Garr.
The “Friends” actress, 61, paid tribute to Garr shortly after the Oscar-nominated comedy legend passed away on Tuesday.
“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,” Kudrow told People in a statement. “I feel so lucky and grateful I got to work with Teri Garr.”
Garr first appeared on “Friends” in 1997, playing Phoebe Abbott, the estranged birth mother of Kudrow’s character, Phoebe Buffay, and Phoebe’s twin sister, Ursula Buffay (also played by Kudrow).
In the Season 3 finale episode, “The One at the Beach,” Phoebe took a break from the friend group’s sandy getaway to track down a woman she believed knew her birth parents. As it turned out, the woman (Garr) was actually Phoebe’s biological mom.
Garr went on to play Abbott in two more episodes of “Friends”: “The One with the Jellyfish” and “The One with Phoebe’s Uterus,” both airing in 1998 during the series’ fourth season.
Garr’s death was confirmed by her publicist, Heidi Schaeffer, who told The Post the star passed away Tuesday morning in Los Angeles after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. Garr was reportedly surrounded by family and friends. She was 79.
Kudrow joined many others in paying tribute to the late actress, including her “Tootsie” co-star Dustin Hoffman. In an exclusive statement to The Post, Hoffman, 87, said, “Teri was brilliant and singular in all she did, and had a heart of gold.”
He added, “Working with her was one of the great highs. There was no one like her.”
Garr, known for her comedic chops, earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the neurotic, chronically out-of-work actress Sandy Lester in the 1982 Sydney Pollack film.
The late star began her acting career in TV, with roles on shows such as “Star Trek,” “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” and “The New Dick Van Dyke Show.” Her big break came in 1974, when she won a role in Mel Brooks’ horror spoof, “Young Frankenstein.”
Garr followed up that performance with parts in two films, Francis Ford Coppola’s thriller “The Conversation” and Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” before starring in “Tootsie.” She continued working in movies and TV until 2011.
In 2002, the actress revealed that she had been diagnosed with MS. “I really didn’t think there was any reason to come out and say anything about it,” Garr said during an interview with CNN’s Larry King at the time. “I think now, the good news is there is a lot of good medicine out there.”
She suffered a brain aneurysm in 2006, though she recovered and was able to return to acting before her 2011 retirement.
Garr is survived by her daughter, Molly O’Neil, 30, and grandson, Tyryn, 6.
