An American lead actor and supporting actor, Corbett was born on August 17, 1933 in El Monte, California, the son of Sarah Bell (Holland) and John Warren Rothenburg, a garage mechanic.
Corbett's film debut was in The Crimson Kimono (1959); it was followed with supporting roles in The Mountain Road (1960) and Man on a String (1960). He took the lead role in william Castle's suspense thriller, Homicidal in (1961).
Corbett's other television roles in the early-to late-1960s were as Wes Macauley on It's a Man's World (1962–1963) with co-stars Ted Bessell, Randy Boone and Michael Burns in the role of Wes's younger brother, Howie. He was featured in 1964 as "Dan Collins" in an episode of Gunsmoke titled "Chicken" in which a man gets an undeserved reputation as a gunman when he is found at a way station with four dead outlaws at his feet. In the 1965–1966 season, Corbett guest starred on the ABC western The Legend of Jesse James.
In 1963, Corbett replaced George Maharis on the popular CBS television series Route 66. Corbett, playing Lincoln Case, co-starred with Martin Milner during part of the third season and the fourth and final season of the series (1963–1964). In 1964 and 1965, he had a role on Twelve O'Clock High as Lt. Tom Lockridge for two episodes.
Corbett guest starred in an episode of The Virginian, entitled "The Awakening", in which his character, David Henderson, was a destitute former minister who has had a crisis of faith and comes to Medicine Bow just as a dispute breaks out at a local mine over safety issues. Corbett also appeared as "Chance Reynolds", a regular cast member on the NBC-TV western The Road West (1966–67).
Corbett is remembered by science fiction fans for his guest starring role in the second season Star Trek episode "Metamorphosis" (1967) as Zefram Cochrane. In 1971, Corbett had a guest appearance with Mariette Hartley on Gunsmoke in an episode titled "Phoenix". In the 1970s, he had guest starring roles on the television shows The Mod Squad, Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, Police Woman, The Rockford Files, and Barnaby Jones.
In other film work, Corbett starred with John Wayne in Chisum (1970), as sheriff Pat Garrett, opposite Wayne in the role of Lincoln County rancher John Chisum. He again starred with the Duke in the film Big Jake (1971), as a half Apache outlaw named O'Brien, opposite Wayne's character as rancher Jacob McCandles. Later, in the 1970s, he had the lead role in Nashville Girl (1976) and in Universal's war epic Midway (1976).
In 1977, Corbett joined the cast of the NBC daytime soap opera The Doctors, playing alongside four-time Emmy winning Actress Kim Zimmer, as newlyweds Jason and Nola Aldrich. Corbett stayed on The Doctors until 1981. Throughout the 1980s, Corbett was a regular cast member in the long-running television series Dallas playing Paul Morgan on the series from 1983–1984 and then from 1986–1988. After his character was written out of the show, he stayed with the Lorimar Television production company for three more years as its dialogue Director.
In January 1993, Corbett died of lung cancer at the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in San Antonio, Texas at the age of 59. He was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio.
