Beverly Heather D'Angelo

Engaging, inspiring and never less than interesting -- key adjectives in describing the career of Beverly D'Angelo, which has already passed the four-decade mark. While she might have appeared in better films than she usually found herself in, Beverly D'Angelo was still a captivating person to be on the lookout for regardless of what role she was in. Hardly the shrinking violet type, Hollywood counted on her for her lively persona, casual manner of speaking and scene-stealing capabilities. Beverly Heather D'Angelo was born on November 15, 1951 in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of musicians Priscilla Ruth (Smith) violinist and Eugene Constantino "Gene" D'Angelo as a bass player. She also ran a television station. Howard Dwight Smith was her maternal grandfather and the designer of the Ohio ("Horseshoe") Stadium. Her mother was of German, Irish, Scottish and German descent, and her father was Italian. Beverly was a student at an American school in Florence. At first, she was awed by art. Beverly worked as an animator/cartoonist at Hanna-Barbera Productions before moving to Canada to pursue a career in rock, To make ends meet she worked as a session vocalist and sang wherever she could -- from coffeehouses to topless bars. In one instance, the teen was invited to join forces with rockabilly legendary Ronnie Hawkins. Beverly began her acting career when she was a part of the Charlottetown Festival repertory troupe and quit Hawkins. While traveling Canada as Ophelia she saw an chance to be in "Kronborg : 1582" it is a rock musical rendition of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Colleen dewhurst was there and noticed the promise of Beverly. The show was renamed Rockabye Hamlet after Gower Champion, the musical director, joined the mix. Even though the show ran only for a few weeks, Beverly's Ophelia received fine notices and soon she found herself in the West coast with TV and film opportunities. She rarely returned to the stage following that, but she did appear with Ed Harris in 1995's off-Broadway production by Sam Shepard's "Simpatico" which earned her a Theatre World Award. She was also a part of the TV miniseries Captains and the Kings (1976), and later played an insignificant role in The Sentinel (1977), and Annie Hall (1977), both Woody Allen classics. First Love (1977), Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and the films adaptations of the anti-culture smash musical Hair (1979) were only several of the co-starring parts. Beverly's most memorable performance was of Patsy Cline (the one and only) in the biopic Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). She and Sissy Spacek, who was a co-star with country singer Loretta Lynn, both provided the vocals with aplomb.