Gretchen Corbett is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actress most noted for the role of Beth Davenport on the television series The Rockford Files

The Rockford Files

The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...

from 1974 to 1978.
Corbett was born in 1947 in Camp Sherman, Oregon

Camp Sherman, Oregon

Camp Sherman is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Oregon, United States. It is located on the Metolius River. The population consists of a few hundred year-round residents, swelling to several thousand during the summer. The community includes an elementary school, Black Butte...

. She studied drama at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Tech just before its merger into Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

 in 1967. Her pursuit of a serious acting career first brought her to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a regional repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States. The festival annually produces eleven plays on three stages during a season that lasts from February to October...

 in Ashland

Ashland, Oregon

Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, near Interstate 5 and the California border, and located in the south end of the Rogue Valley. It was named after Ashland County, Ohio, point of origin of Abel Helman and other founders, and secondarily for Ashland, Kentucky, where other...

. 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

Alec McCowen

Alexander Duncan "Alec" McCowen CBE is an English actor. He is known for his work in numerous film and stage productions. He was awarded the CBE in the 1985 New Year's Honours List.-Personal:...

, Forty Carats

Forty Carats

Forty Carats is a play by Jay Allen.Adapted from the French original by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, the comedy revolves around a 40-year-old American divorcee who is assisted by a 22-year-old when her car breaks down during a vacation in Greece...

with Julie Harris

Julie Harris

Julia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...

 directed by Abe Burrows

Abe Burrows

Abe Burrows was a Tony and Pulitzer-winning American humorist, author, and director for radio and the stage.-Early years:...

, Shakespeare's Henry VI at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Shaw's Arms and the Man

Arms and the Man

Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" ....

at The Sheridan Square, Iphigeneia at Aulis

Iphigeneia at Aulis

Iphigenia in Aulis is the last extant work of the playwright Euripides. Written between 408, after the Orestes, and 406 BC, the year of Euripides's death, the play was first produced the following year by his son or nephew, Euripides the Younger, and won the first place at the Athenian city...

with Irene Papas

Irene Papas

Irene Papas is a Greek actress and occasional singer, who has starred in over seventy films in a career spanning more than fifty years.-Life:...

 at Circle in the Square, The Government Inspector with David Dukes

David Dukes

David Coleman Dukes was an American character actor.-Life:Dukes was born in San Francisco, California, the son of a highway patrolman...

 and John Glover

John Glover (actor)

John Soursby Glover Jr. is an American actor, perhaps best known for a range of villainous roles in films and television, including Lionel Luthor on the Superman-inspired television series Smallville.-Personal life:...

 at The Phoenix Theatre.