Lisa Kudrow Remembers ‘Friends’ Mom Teri Garr After Her Death (Exclusive)

Lisa Kudrow pays tribute to her TV mom, Teri Garr.

Shortly after, news of Garr’s death broke on October 29 Friends alum, 61, remembered the actress in a heartfelt statement to PEOPLE.

“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,” she said. “I feel so lucky and grateful to have worked with Teri Garr.”

Garr made his debut on Friends as Phoebe Abbott, the estranged birth mother of Kudrow’s Phoebe Buffay and Ursula Buffay, in season 3 episode 25. She appeared in three episodes of the hit NBC sitcom.

Garr first appeared in the season 3 finale in 1997, titled “The One at the Beach”, which saw Phoebe breaking away from the group of friends’ trip to hook up with a woman who knew her parents. Phoebe later discovered that the woman, Phoebe Abbott (Garr), was not just a friend of her parents, but was her biological mother. After the realization, the two also noticed that they share the same quirky mannerisms.

Garr’s last two episodes came in season 4 with “The One with the Jellyfish” and “The One with Phoebe’s Uterus”, both of which aired in 1998.

“The One with the Jellyfish” (season 4 premiere) returned with Phoebe in shock after learning her mother’s identity and telling her she would never see her again. However, it was short-lived as Abbott tracked down Phoebe at Central Perk and the two officially reconciled.

In “The One with Phoebe’s Uterus”, Abbott helped Phoebe as she considered whether to be her brother Frank (Giovanni Ribisi) and sister-in-law Alice’s (Debra Jo Rupp) surrogate. 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 it up. But things took a turn when Phoebe ended up wanting to keep the puppy, which was revealed to be Abbott’s pet.

Garr, most famous for his comedic work in films such as 1974 Young Frankenstein and the 1982s Tootsiedied Tuesday, October 29 of multiple sclerosis.

Her publicist Heidi Schaeffer told PEOPLE that Garr died “surrounded by family and friends.”

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The late actress first revealed in 2002 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in the late 90s. She first started noticing symptoms while filming One from the heart and Tootsie.

She later published a memoir, Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywoodin 2006, when she opened up about her illness. “MS is an insidious disease,” she wrote in an excerpt published by PEOPLE. “Like some of my boyfriends, it tends to show up at the most awkward times and then disappear completely. It would take over 20 years for doctors to figure out what was wrong. Sometimes they mentioned MS but all the tests came back. Then the symptoms would go away and I’d forget about it, sort of.”

Throughout his career, Garr was known for his comedic roles in films such as Tootsie and Young Frankensteinand appeared in television programs such as McCloud, M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, The odd couple, Maude and Barnaby Jones. She was also the host Saturday Night Live three times, in 1980, 1983 and 1985, and had roles in Casper meets Wendythe Design by women spinoff series The women of the house, Dick and Ghost 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 slow down, but I have to,” she shared Brain & Life magazine in 2005. “Stress and anxiety and all that high tension stuff is not good for MS.”