Gretsch was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and grew up in Albany, Minnesota, the son of Russ and Barb. He has a sister, Jane, and a brother, Steve. Gretsch was raised Roman Catholic.
Gretsch studied acting at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis before moving to Los Angeles in 1989. His stage work includes roles in Molière's Tartuffe and John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.
He started his television work in the early 1990s, appearing in episodes of Married... with Children, Melrose Place, Friends and Saved by the Bell: The New Class. Since then he has appeared in episodes of JAG, Silk Stalkings, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Burn Notice, and NCIS. More recently, he played a wealthy advertising executive and husband of a supermodel on an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He also had two guest appearances on NBC's Journeyman, playing the father of protagonist Dan Vasser.

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