Gretchen Corbett

Infobox actor
name = Gretchen Corbett


imagesize = 125px
caption = Corbett in a screen cap from The Rockford Files
birthdate = birth date and age|1947|8|13
birthplace = Camp Sherman, Oregon

Gretchen Corbett is an American actress most noted for the role of "Beth Davenport" on the television series "The Rockford Files" from 1974 to 1978.

Early Life in Oregon

Corbett was born August 13, 1947 in Camp Sherman, Oregon, a remote village of about 200 in the heart of Ponderosa pine country. She studied drama at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Tech just before its merger into Carnegie Mellon University in 1967. Her pursuit of a serious acting career first brought her to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. She moved to New York and enjoyed a successful career on stage, with many roles on and off Broadway. Some highlights include Broadway's "After the Rain" with Alec McCowen, "Forty Carats" with Julie Harris directed by Abe Burrows, Shakespeare's "Henry VI" at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Shaw's "Arms and The Man" at The Sheridan Square, "Iphigeneia at Aulis" with Irene Papas at Circle in the Square, "The Government Inspector" with David Dukes and John Glover at The Phoenix Theatre. She worked in many regional theatres, including the Long Wharf Theatre, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, the Eugene O'Neill Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and the Repertory Theatre of New Orleans.

Film and television

One of her first television roles was on ABC's short-lived police detective show, "N.Y.P.D.", in 1968. In an episode called "The Case of the Shady Lady", Corbett played a dancer who tries to make her husband's suicide into a murder for the insurance money. She had a a supporting role in the film "Out of It" with Jon Voight, and minor role as a mute in the 1971 cult film "Let's Scare Jessica to Death".In 1973, Corbett moved to Los Angeles under contract to Universal Studios, as one of the last "contract players" of the studio contract system. While with Universal, she worked on virtually every major television series produced by the studio. Her first role under contract was an episode of the legendary series "Kojak", and roles followed on "Wonder Woman", "Emergency!", "Barnaby Jones", "Hawaii 5-0", "Columbo", "Gunsmoke", "McMillan and Wife", "Barbary Coast", "Banacek", "Family", "Otherworld", "Murder, She Wrote", "Cheers" and "Magnum, P.I.".

She starred in "The Savage Bees" (1976) with Ben Johnson and in "The Jaws of Satan" (1981), (where she filmed her one and only nude scene), with Fritz Weaver and a very young Christina Applegate. She also starred in NBC's television film version of "The Cay" with James Earl Jones and in NBC's "Farewell to Manzanar". In 1978, she appeared in "The Other Side of the Mountain" with Marilyn Hassettt. She later appeared as a regular in a number of television series, including a recurring role on the hugely popular medical drama "Marcus Welby, M.D.", the short lived sci-fi fantasy drama "Otherworld" on CBS, NBC's detective drama "Ellery Queen", and the popular soap opera "Love is a Many Splendored Thing".

The Rockford Files

Jim Rockford was a detective played on "The Rockford Files" by James Garner, and Corbett joined the series as a recurring regular to portray his beleaguered lawyer and sometime lover. Corbett left the series at the end of the fourth season over a salary dispute, though Corbett herself was not looking for more money: the dispute was between the show's producers and Universal (who owned Corbett's contract as a contract player). Corbett went on to do quite a bit of other television, eventually returning to play Davenport again in the "Rockford Files" TV movies of the 1990s.

The Haven Project

In the 2000s she has served as Artistic Director of the Haven Project, a theatre project for underprivileged children in Portland, Oregon which is a replication of New York's 52nd St. Project. Her daughter Winslow Corbett, who physically resembles her mother, is also an actress, having toured as Elaine Robinson in stage versions of "The Graduate", among many other roles.

External links

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