He is a movie actor, stage, TV movies and TV series. Know for his role in Northern Exposure. He was also in musicals and worked on and off Broadway. Corbin was born in Lamesa, the seat of Dawson County, south of Lubbock in west Texas. He is the son of the former Alma LaMerle Scott (1918–1994), a teacher, and Kilmer Blaine Corbin, Sr. (1919–1993), a school principal, a judge and a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate for two terms from 1949-1957.[2] Corbin was named for author J. M. Barrie by his mom. He played football briefly in 8th grade, but soon moved to the arts, including acting and ballet classes. He graduated from Monterey High School. Corbin studied theatre arts at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. At 21, he joined the United States Marine Corps, served two years and then returned to Tech.
Career
Corbin began his career as a Shakespearean actor in the 1960s, but today he is more likely to be seen in the role of the local sheriff, military leader, or some other authority figure, though on occasion, he has effectively portrayed murderous villains as well. To moviegoers he is well remembered as General Beringer in WarGames, John Travolta's uncle Bob Davis in Urban Cowboy, co-starring with Clint Eastwood in Any Which Way You Can, or Roscoe Brown, July Johnson's bumbling deputy in the acclaimed western Lonesome Dove.
From 1979 until 1984, he appeared in several episodes of Dallas as Sheriff Fenton Washburn. In 1983, Corbin co-starred in the famed television miniseries The Thorn Birds. Corbin played Mary Carson's stockman Pete, who teaches the Cleary's sons how to shear sheep on their aunt's gigantic sheep station Drogheda, in Australia. In 1983-1984, Corbin played Merit Sawyer in the NBC television series Boone. Corbin's role was that of a stern father to the young actor Tom Byrd, who played Boone Sawyer, an aspiring singer. The program was set in rural Tennessee during the 1950s and was created by Earl Hamner, who had great success earlier with CBS's The Waltons. From 1990 to 1995, Corbin portrayed former astronaut Maurice Minnifield on CBS's Northern Exposure, for which he received an Emmy Award nomination.
In 1994, Corbin narrated the acclaimed TBS documentary MoonShot, telling the story of the 1960s space race from the first-person viewpoint of Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton. In 2007, He played the character Clay Johnson, father of Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on The Closer series.
From 2003-2008, Corbin played Whitey Durham, the basketball coach for the Tree Hill Ravens on The WB/CW teenage drama series One Tree Hill. He also had a role in 2008's Oscar-winning film No Country for Old Men. Corbin lost most of his hair in the 1990s due to alopecia areata. Since then, he has played various roles with a shaved head, wearing a cowboy hat, or occasionally wearing a full toupee. Corbin is the signature voice of radio station KPLX in Fort Worth, Texas, and has also voiced trailers and promos for CMT and various other country radio stations.
Personal life
Many of his films have been westerns, and Corbin's proficiency in the saddle is no act. Corbin won many cutting-horse competitions before breaking into film. Much of his spare time is spent riding horses and tending to cattle on his small Texas ranch near Fort Worth. He has volunteered his time to charity for many years, including rodeos and being spokesman for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. In 2006, he participated in the Lubbock centennial. Corbin has been quoted as being an avid enthusiast of riding horses.
Corbin lives on the ranch with his daughter, Shannon Ross (born 1965) and grandchildren. Shannon had been adopted as an infant; her birth mother, who had an affair with Corbin, gave up the child through the Methodist Mission Home in San Antonio, without having told Corbin of the pregnancy. Corbin found Shannon in June 1991, when she was twenty-six. Corbin has three sons: Bernard (born 1970), Jim (born 1979), and Christopher (born 1982). He and his second wife, Susan Berger, divorced in 1992.
In 2009, Corbin was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. A recent painting of Corbin has been placed at the museum exhibit. Corbin has appeared at gatherings of the American Cowboy Culture Association, which holds the annual National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration each September in Lubbock.
In September 2011, Corbin was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Estes Park Film Festival in Estes Park, Colorado. The Texas Film Hall of Fame inducted Corbin into its membership on March 8, 2012.
He has made public-service announcements and commercials.
Other Comments:
At 21, Barry left the university to join the Marine Corps on a hangover and a friend's dare. "We went in together", says his brother Blaine. "I worried about him. He wasn't the military type at all". Barry spent about two years at Camp Pendleton in California, training South Vietnamese officers.
With no plans to abandon the Lone Star state, Barry joined the Marine Corps Reserve in March 1962. He was initially attached to the 40th Rifle Company at Lubbock, and he entered recruiting as a member of the 3d Recruit Training Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. After completing his training in June of that same year he was ordered to N Company, 2d Battalion, 2d Infantry Training Regiment, Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton. He stayed there until he was released from active duty in September.
Barry remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, rejoining the 40th Rifle Company in Lubbock as an assistant Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) man.
He was discharged from the Reserves in August 1963.
Barry still maintains that although he never left California, much less saw any action, his Marine Corps training has served him well in both his public and private pursuits.
