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All All. Sign In. Beverly Heather D'Angelo. Intriguing, inspiring, and never less than interesting -- key adjectives in describing the career of Beverly D'Angelo, which has well passed the four-decade mark.

Beverly Heather D'Angelo was born on November 15, in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of musicians Priscilla Ruth (Smith), a violinist, and Eugene Constantino.

Perhaps deserving better movies than she generally found herself in, she nevertheless was always an object of fascination and the one to watch Hardly the shrinking violet type, Hollywood counted on her for her colorful personality, down-to-earth demeanor and scene-stealing capabilities. Beverly once attended an American school in Florence, Italy.

At one point the teenager was invited to join up with rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins. Beverly's acting career started up when she left the Hawkins band and joined the Charlottetown Festival repertory company. She was touring Canada as Ophelia in "Kronborg: ", a rock musical version of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" when the renowned Colleen Dewhurst caught a performance and saw promise in both Beverly and the show.

Eventually musical director Gower Champion got into the mix and the show was completely revamped, becoming the rock musical "Rockabye Hamlet", which made its way to Broadway in While the show itself was short-lived, Beverly's Ophelia attracted fine notices and she soon found herself on the West coast with film and TV opportunities.

Beverly Heather D'Angelo (born November 15, ) is an American actress who starred as Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon's Vacation films (–).

After this point, she seldom returned to the stage but did star alongside Ed Harris in the off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard 's "Simpatico", which earned her a Theatre World Award. A string of co-starring roles followed with First Love , the Clint Eastwood starrer Every Which Way But Loose and the film adaptation of the hit counterculture musical Hair Best of all for Beverly was her powerhouse featured performance as the one-and-only Patsy Cline in the acclaimed biopic Coal Miner's Daughter Both she and Oscar winner Sissy Spacek as fellow country singer Loretta Lynn expertly supplied their own vocals.

Playing everything from tough-as-nails prostitutes, party girls and barflies to rich, prim widows and depressed, alcoholic moms, most of Beverly's output was solid during this time.