1. Gretchen Hoyt Corbett was born on August 13,1945 and is an American actress and theater director.
34 Facts About Gretchen Corbett
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Gretchen Corbett is primarily known for her roles in television, particularly as attorney Beth Davenport on the NBC series The Rockford Files, but has had a prolific career as a stage actress on Broadway as well as in regional theater.
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Gretchen Corbett subsequently appeared in lead roles on Broadway in After the Rain and Forty Carats, opposite Julie Harris.
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Gretchen Corbett starred off-Broadway in the title role of Iphigenia in Aulis, and as Joan la Pucelle in Shakespeare's Henry VI, staged at Central Park's Delacorte Theater in 1970.
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Gretchen Corbett starred as Jeanne d'Arc in The Survival of St Joan between 1970 and 1971.
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Gretchen Corbett made her feature film debut in the comedy Out of It, followed by a supporting role in the cult horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death.
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In 1972, Gretchen Corbett signed a contract with Universal Studios, and appeared in numerous television films and series for the studio, while simultaneously working in summer stock theater on the East Coast.
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Gretchen Corbett subsequently starred in the horror film Jaws of Satan, and the drama Million Dollar Infield, directed by Hal Cooper.
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Gretchen Corbett later had minor parts in the films Without Evidence and A Change of Heart.
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Since the 2000s, Gretchen Corbett has served as the artistic director of the Portland-based Haven Project, a theater project serving underprivileged children, and appeared in numerous stage productions at the Portland Center Stage as well as the city's Third Rail Repertory.
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Gretchen Corbett returned to television with a recurring character on the IFC series Portlandia in 2013, and had a guest-starring role on the Hulu series Shrill in 2019.
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Gretchen Corbett is a great-great-granddaughter of Oregon pioneer, businessman, and Senator Henry Winslow Corbett, and granddaughter of Henry Ladd Corbett, a Portland civic leader, businessman, and politician.
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The community of Gretchen Corbett, Oregon is named for her great-great-grandfather.
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At age seven, Gretchen Corbett was inspired to become an actress after attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
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Gretchen Corbett attended the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, and as a teenager apprenticed with the Carnival Theatre camp at the University of Oregon.
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Gretchen Corbett studied drama at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Tech, but dropped out after her first year of studies to begin working as a full-time actress.
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Gretchen Corbett made her stage debut as Desdemona in a production of Othello at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1966.
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Gretchen Corbett subsequently appeared in productions with the New Orleans Repertory Theater in 1967.
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Gretchen Corbett subsequently co-starred with Julie Harris in the Broadway production of Forty Carats, staged at the Morosco Theatre.
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Gretchen Corbett made her feature film debut in the comedy Out of It, co-starring with Jon Voight.
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Gretchen Corbett then appeared in the cult horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death.
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Meanwhile, between 1970 and 1971, Gretchen Corbett starred as Jeanne d'Arc in a New York production of The Survival of St Joan.
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Gretchen Corbett appeared in The Government Inspector with David Dukes and John Glover at The Phoenix Theatre.
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Gretchen Corbett moved to Los Angeles under contract to Universal Studios, as one of the last contract players.
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Under her Universal contract, Gretchen Corbett guest-starred in numerous network series in 1974, including Columbo, Gunsmoke, and Banacek.
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In 1974, Gretchen Corbett joined the cast of NBC's The Rockford Files where she played Beth Davenport, the beleaguered lawyer and sometimes lover of series lead Jim Rockford, a private investigator portrayed by James Garner.
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Gretchen Corbett appeared as Penny in another PBS televised play, George Kelly's The Fatal Weakness, opposite Eva Marie Saint and Dennis Dugan.
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Gretchen Corbett left The Rockford Files at the end of the fourth season over a dispute between the show's producers and Universal, who owned Gretchen Corbett's contract as a contract player.
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Gretchen Corbett starred in the horror film Jaws of Satan, playing a doctor implicated in a preacher's battle with a snake which is Satan incarnate.
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In 1988, Gretchen Corbett starred in the original workshop production of Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles at the Seattle Repertory Theatre.
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Gretchen Corbett reprised her role of Beth Davenport in the Rockford Files television films of the 1990s, including Friends and Foul Play, If the Frame Fits.
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Between 2013 and 2014, Gretchen Corbett appeared in a recurring guest role on the IFC series Portlandia.
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In late 2019, Gretchen Corbett began filming the independent drama Pig, starring Nicolas Cage, Adam Arkin, and Alex Wolff.
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Gretchen Corbett appeared in Lorelei, starring Pablo Schreiber and Jena Malone, which was released in 2021.