Mostly stage-oriented actress who is the mother of actor Jon Cryer and Robin Cryer.
Played the aunt of Jon Cryer's character in the 1987 film Hiding Out (1987). In real -life, Gretchen is Jon Cryer's mother.
She was awarded the 1980 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actress in a principle pole in a Musical for "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road", at the Travel Light Productions Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.