An actor for more than six decades will serve as the entertainment for the annual Greenwood County Cattlemen’s Banquet, on Saturday, Nov. 2. Over the years, Barry Corbin has played 15 sheriffs, several generals, a few wise uncles, a swaggering astronaut and a hard-core basketball coach. He’s also played psychotic patriarchs, wealthy Texans, Santa Claus and Lyndon Johnson.
As a young child, Corbin grew to love Westerns by spending Saturday afternoons at Lamesa’s Majestic Theater. He often found himself observing those around him and taking notes of their different accents. Corbin acted throughout high school and was determined to continue the trade in college, while attending Texas Tech University. He did just that and was cast as Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor his freshman year. As the years went on, Corbin worked on an oil rig, when not attending college and later joined the Marines, spending two years at Camp Pendleton, in Southern California.
In 1965, he moved to Chicago with his wife, Marie Elyse S o a p e , to pursue their stage goals. They spent a year in Chicago before moving to Raleigh, N.C.
After the couple divorced, he hit the road for more stage work. He traveled to Alabama, Mississippi and Massachusetts.
In 1976, he got the part of playing the world’s greatest hot-air balloon pilot in Movin’ On. He also appeared as a guest in an episode of Hawaii Five-O, a hit man in The Andros Targets.
He later married Susan Berger, a fellow actor he had met in Alabama and the couple relocated to Los Angeles, Calif. When he arrived, he wrote a play called The Whiz Bang Café. While performing the play, he asked an agent to see it and although she liked his writing, she loved his acting and got him an audition.
This led him to his first big-screen role: Uncle Bob in Urban Cowboy, staring alongside John Travolta at the age of 39.
Corbin later took on the role of Sheriff Fenton Washburn in Dallas, a crooked but engaging lawman. He also had supporting turns in two box-office hits, Stir Crazy and Any Which Way You Can. Nothing, however, could have prepared him for the success of War-Games,
in 1983. Corbin played Jack Beringer, a four-star general who had to prevent a computer driven World War III started unknowingly by a teenage hacker, played by Matthew Broderick.
He continued his acting career in The Journeyman with Willie Nelson and Crossfire Trail with Tom Selleck.
In 2007, he played Uncle Ellis in No Country for Old Men. Besides acting in westerns, Corbin was also doing voice work on documentaries. Over the past decade, Corbin has played roles in various TV shows like Anger Management, The Ranch, Modern Family, Better Call Saul, and 9-1-1: Lone Star.
Corbin married Jo, his third wife, in 2015, and since then they’ve lived across the street (in Hadley, TX) from his daughter Shannon Ross and her second husband.
Corbin turned 80 in October 2020, and is showing no signs of hanging up his spurs. He keeps a bag packed in his closet, as he has for most of his professional life. The annual Cattlemen’s Banquet will include a social hour from 5-6:30 p.m. and a dinner at 6:30 p.m., with Corbin providing the entertainment beginning at 8 p.m.
Tickets for the event are currently being sold. For the dinner and show, the cost is $45 before October 20 and $50 on October 21 or later. Those wishing to attend the show only may do so with a $20 ticket purchase (either in advance or at the door).
For more information or to purchase a ticket, contact the Greenwood County Extension Office at 620-5837455 or Michele Seeley at 918-331-6034.
A complete schedule of event for the annual Cattlemen’s Day event will be included in next week’s edition. (Courtesy photo)
