Gretchen Corbett

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Gretchen Corbett
Corbett in 1975
Born
Gretchen Hoyt Corbett

(1945-08-13) August 13, 1945 (age 78)[a]
Portland, Oregon, U.S.[b]
Occupations
  • Actress
  • theater director
Years active1967–present
PartnerRobin Gammell
ChildrenWinslow Corbett
Relatives

Gretchen Hoyt Corbett (born August 13, 1945[a][4]) is an American actress and theater director. She is primarily known for her roles in television, particularly as attorney Beth Davenport on the NBC series The Rockford Files, but has also had a prolific career as a stage actress on Broadway as well as in regional theater.

A native of

Julie Harris. She also starred off-Broadway in the title role of Iphigenia in Aulis (1968), and as Joan la Pucelle in Shakespeare's Henry VI, staged at Central Park's Delacorte Theater in 1970. She starred as Jeanne d'Arc in The Survival of St. Joan
between 1970 and 1971.

She made her feature film debut in the comedy

summer stock theater on the East Coast. Between 1974 and 1978, she starred as the idealistic attorney Beth Davenport on the NBC series The Rockford Files, opposite James Garner. Corbett subsequently starred in the horror film Jaws of Satan (1981), and the drama Million Dollar Infield (1982), directed by Hal Cooper
.

For the majority of the 1980s, Corbett appeared in guest-starring roles on numerous television series, including

Portlandia in 2013, and had a guest-starring role on the Hulu series Shrill
in 2019.

1945–1965: Early life

Gretchen Hoyt Corbett was born August 13, 1945. Corbett's year of birth is variously given as 1947[1][2][3] and 1945.[4] in Portland, Oregon[b] to Henry Ladd Corbett, Jr. and Katherine Minahen (née Coney) "Kay" Corbett. She is a great-great-granddaughter of Oregon pioneer, businessman, and Senator Henry Winslow Corbett,[8] and granddaughter of Henry Ladd Corbett, a Portland civic leader, businessman, and politician. The community of Corbett, Oregon is named for her great-great-grandfather.[9] Through her paternal ancestry, she is of English descent, with ancestors originating from Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk.[10] Corbett has two brothers and one sister.[6]

Corbett's father, tired of the city, relocated the family to rural Camp Sherman, Oregon,[11] where she spent her early life.[7] "I rode my horse to school every day, four miles each way," she recalled in a 1985 interview. "I hated it then, but, in retrospect, it was a marvelous life and a great way to grow up."[7] The family eventually returned to Portland in her later childhood, where her mother worked as an administrator at the University of Portland.[6] At age seven, Corbett was inspired to become an actress after attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.[5]

Corbett attended the

Carnegie Tech (before its merger with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon University in 1967), but dropped out after her first year of studies to begin working as a full-time actress.[5]

Career

1966–1972: Stage and early films

Corbett as Jeanne d'Arc in The Survival of St. Joan, 1970

Corbett made her stage debut as

Julie Harris in the Broadway production of Forty Carats, staged at the Morosco Theatre.[17]

One of Corbett's first television roles was on ABC's short-lived police detective show, N.Y.P.D., in 1968; in the episode, "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.[18] Corbett made her feature film debut in the comedy Out of It (1969), co-starring with Jon Voight.[19] She then appeared in the cult horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971).[20] Meanwhile, between 1970 and 1971, Corbett starred as Jeanne d'Arc in a New York production of The Survival of St. Joan.[15] She also appeared in The Government Inspector with David Dukes and John Glover at The Phoenix Theatre.

1973–1980: The Rockford Files; television

Corbett and Jack Colvin in Knuckle (1975)

Corbett moved to

Gunsmoke, and Banacek.[23]

In 1974, Corbett joined the cast of NBC's

Hollywood Television Theater, as well as guest-starring on the series Hawaii Five-O and McMillan & Wife.[23] On September 13, 1975 she appeared in the television series Emergency! as flight stewardess Sue Hickman who started a relationship with Gage after an in flight emergency brought the two together. She also appeared in Marcus Welby, M.D., playing the stepmother of a young boy molested by his teacher.[28]

Corbett appeared as Penny in another PBS televised play, George Kelly's The Fatal Weakness, opposite Eva Marie Saint and Dennis Dugan.[29]

Corbett left The Rockford Files at the end of the fourth season over a dispute between the show's producers and Universal, who owned Corbett's contract as a contract player.

1981–present: Film, television and theater

Corbett starred in the horror film Jaws of Satan (1981), playing a doctor implicated in a preacher's battle with a snake which is Satan incarnate.[2] In 1982, she starred as Roxane in a production of The Carome Brothers' Italian Food Products Corp.'s Annual Pasta Pageant at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut.[30] In 1985, she starred in the science fiction series Otherworld.[31] In 1988, Corbett starred in the original workshop production of Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles at the Seattle Repertory Theatre.[32]

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... (both 1996) and If It Bleeds... It Leads (1999).[2]

Between 2013 and 2014, Corbett appeared in a recurring guest role on the

Portlandia. In 2014, she directed a production of the play Bo-Nita at Portland Center Stage.[33] In 2019, she appeared in the Hulu series Shrill, opposite Luka Jones and Aidy Bryant.[34] In late 2019, Corbett began filming the independent drama Pig, starring Nicolas Cage, Adam Arkin, and Alex Wolff. She also appeared in Lorelei, starring Pablo Schreiber and Jena Malone
, which was released in 2021.

The Haven Project

In the 2000s, Corbett served as Artistic Director of the Haven Project, a theatre project for underprivileged children in Portland, Oregon, a replication of New York's 52nd St. Project.

Personal life

Corbett had a relationship with Robin Gammell. They had one child, Winslow Corbett.[citation needed]

Filmography

Main article: List of Gretchen Corbett performances

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b Corbett's year of birth is variously given as 1947[1][2][3] and 1945.
  2. ^ a b Some sources state Corbett was born in Camp Sherman, Oregon,[5] though a 1985 article notes her birthplace as Portland;[6] another article published the same year notes that Corbett spent her early life in Camp Sherman, but was not born there.[7]

Citations

  1. ^ a b "Gretchen Corbett". British Film Institute. London. Archived from the original on July 12, 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Gretchen Corbett Filmography". AllMovie. Archived from the original on July 11, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Phillips & Garcia 1996, p. 229.
  4. ^ a b "Gretchen Corbett: Movies, TV, and Bio". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  5. ^
    Independent Press-Telegram
    . Long Beach, California. p. 79 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b c Blinn, Johna (February 27, 1985). "Celebrity cookbook". Philadelphia Daily News. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. 96 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b c Kleiner, Dick (March 11, 1985). "Gretchen Corbett Tries Sci-Fi Series Star Spot". The Daily Herald. Provo, Utah. p. 24 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ The Oregonian, Friday, February 2, 2001 (Katherine C. Corbett obituary).
  9. ISBN 978-0875952772
    .
  10. ^ Sherman, Thomas Townsend (1920). Sherman Genealogy Including Families of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, England. London: T. A. Wright. p. 394.
  11. ^ Kleiner, Dick (March 3, 1985). "Stepfanie Kramer drives". Manitowoc Herald-Times. Manitowoc, Wisconsin. p. 22 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Five Summer Shows Announced". The Register-Guard. Eugene, Oregon. April 22, 1962. p. 37 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ English, Jeryme (July 26, 1966). "Around Town..." Statesman Journal. Salem, Oregon. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. The Times
    . p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ a b "Gretchen Corbett". Broadway World. Archived from the original on July 11, 2019.
  16. ^ "'Lives' Delayed, Nype Joins Cast". New York Daily News. May 7, 1968. p. 49 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Forty Carats". Broadway World. Archived from the original on October 27, 2018.
  18. ^ "NYPD, 9:30p.m." Los Angeles Times. November 19, 1968. p. 77 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Gretchen Corbett Filmography". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on July 11, 2019. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  20. ^ Greenspun, Roger (August 28, 1971). "Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) Screen: Hippie Vampire:' Let's Scare Jessica to Death' Arrives". The New York Times.
  21. ^ Lambert, Virginia (July 6, 1973). "A tearfully good show". The Record. Hackensack, New Jersey – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Berthold, Walt (July 19, 1973). "Shakespeare As We Like It". Madison-Florham Park Eagle. Madison, New Jersey. p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ a b "PBS Theatre Cracks a 'Knuckle'". The News. Paterson, New Jersey. May 31, 1975. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Hal Erickson (2013). "Gretchen Corbett". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2013-10-03.
  25. ^ Scott, Vernon (July 9, 1975). "Gretchen Corbett: A new home". The Santa Fe New Mexican. Santa Fe, New Mexico. p. A11 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Gretchen Corbett survived Christmas 1974 house fire". The Buffalo News. 19 July 1975. p. 68.
  27. ^ "Gretchen Corbett was a bachelorette". The Indianapolis Star. 3 August 1975. p. 195.
  28. ^ Tropiano 2002, p. 18.
  29. ^ Smith, Cecil (September 30, 1976). "'The Fatal Weakness' on PBS". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 78 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ^ Johnson, Malcolm L. (April 23, 1982). "'Pasta' Has Smell of Sweet Success". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. p. 67 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ "Gretchen Corbett Credits". TV Guide. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  32. ISBN 978-0-822-20510-4
    .
  33. ^ Hodde, R.J. (January 24, 2014). "Spotlight: "Bo-Nita" Director Gretchen Corbett". Portland Center Stage. Archived from the original on March 30, 2017.
  34. ^ Turnquist, Kristi (April 16, 2019). "What Hulu's 'Shrill' says about Portland: We have savvy strippers, podcasting man-babies and sex-minded singles". The Oregonian. Archived from the original on July 11, 2019. Retrieved July 11, 2019.

Sources

External links

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