TERI GARR'S TIER : TOOTSIE FILM HONOURS

Teri Garr found the soul in ditsy. In '' Tootsie '' and other films - she brought unhinged characters alive with depth.

In '' Tootsie, '' Teri Garr perfected the polite way to say had a bad time at a party. 

Bidding a friend good night, her character, a struggling actress named Sandy, tells him, '' It was a wonderful party, my date left with someone else, I had a lot of fun, do you have any seconal?''

She sounds sunny as she's saying all this and barely takes a breath. Its a master class in comedic despair.

Garr, who died on Tuesday at 79 from complications of multiple sclerosis, turned the neurotic basket case into an art form. On paper a Terri Garr role could be written off as a daffy blonde, but she gave these women depth and made them entrancingly funny.

Garr wasn't only funny - just witness the pain in her eyes as the worried wife in '' Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' [1977, on major platforms]. And yet was a wonder as a comedian, putting her own spin on women who could easily be defined by stereotypes.

She didn't so much try to subvert those stereotypes as mold them something completely new. She did that with her wild eyes and easy physicality, but also by knowing that even ditsy blondes with low self-esteem shouldn't be underestimated.

The World Students Society thanks Esther Zuckerman.