Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 28, 1992 TAG: 9203300173
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT WILLIAMS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Corbett plays Chris Stevens, a gentle, wise and semimystic morning disc jockey in Cicely, Alaska, one of several memorably endearing characters in CBS' hit comedy, "Northern Exposure" (it's just gotten a two-year renewal).
He spends so much time filming the show in Seattle's suburbs and the little town of Roslyn, Wash., which plays the part of Cicely, that he has yet to really live in his new house in the Los Angeles suburb of Eagle Rock.
He finds that he's unaccustomed to being a celebrity.
"My lifestyle hasn't really changed," he said, kicking back his black Western boots and swigging bottled water. "I sleep on a futon on the floor and I've got a TV and a couple of things and a couple of boxes of stuff."
He still has the same car he's owned for seven years. "It's a 1967 Porsche 912 that I bought for $5,000 and I haven't put a dime into since I've owned it," he says with some pride.
Corbett was a hand in a steel plant, making good money, when he got hurt on the job. "I'd still be doing it - for a fact - if I hadn't got hurt," he said. On disability, he took some business classes at junior college in Cerritos, Calif., and wandered into the theater. The hook was set.
Fast foward a couple years and Corbett is a successful actor in commercials - make that a VERY successful actor in more than 50 commercials. He reckons that he's probably not making as much money these days on "Northern Exposure."
And he still is modest about his own skill as an actor.
"I could make something sound sort of truthful. I'm not really a character actor. I couldn't play a bunch of different characters," he said.
"I'm a one-note actor. I do one thing, kinda good at that. But everything I do is sort of, like . . . me - a combination of me and saying someone else's words. That builds the character. I just feel I'm a guy who works for a living.
"The thing that really has changed my life is the fame part of it," he said. "The people coming up to me, recognizing me from the show, talking about it. I don't know how anybody gets used to it.
"I used to read how people come up to you when you're eating and talking and taking a bite and you're shoving things in your mouth. And I used to think, `No, that just doesn't happen. I know human nature. I know people aren't like that.' You don't believe it until it actually happens to you. And it happens a lot.
"For me, it's like, `Hey, you're on `Northern Exposure,' `Hey, Chris in the Morning!' I've had very few people know my real name. Obviously, if the show stays on for another year, they'll be able to put a name to it. You know, like Woody from `Cheers.'
"And you know, that's a scary thing. Knowing that every week there's going to be a few more people that recognize me than there were today. And next week the same thing.
"It's not a natural thing, is it?"
by CNB