Gretchen Corbett

Gretchen Corbett is an American actress and theater director who grew up in Oregon and trained in drama at Carnegie Tech. She began on stage as Desdemona in a 1966 Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of Othello, then appeared on Broadway in After the Rain and opposite Julie Harris in Forty Carats. Her early film work included Out of It (1969) and the horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971). Corbett became best known for playing attorney Beth Davenport on the NBC series The Rockford Files, a role she held from 1974 to 1978 and later reprised in the television film Friends and Foul Play (1996). She also appeared in Jaws of Satan (1981), had guest roles on Cheers and Magnum, P.I., and starred in the short-lived series Otherworld. In later years she appeared in Pig (2021) and Lorelei (2020), while continuing to direct theater and lead the Haven Project, a Portland program for underprivileged children.