Gretchen Corbett

Gretchen Hoyt Corbett (born August 13, 1945) is an American actress most noted for the role of Beth Davenport on the television series The Rockford Files from 1974-78. Though Corbett has predominantly worked in television, she also gained notoriety for her role in the cult horror film Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971). She has also appeared as a recurring character on the IFC series Portlandia, beginning in 2013. 2Early life Corbett was born in 1945 in Camp Sherman, Oregon to Henry Ladd Corbett, Jr. and Katherine Minahen (née Coney) "Kay" Corbett. She is a great-great-granddaughter of Oregon pioneer and Senator Henry W. Corbett. She studied drama at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Tech before its merger with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research to form Carnegie Mellon University in 1967. 2Career 3Film and television One of Corbett's 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 supporting roles in Out of It with Jon Voight (1969), and as a mute in Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971