Beverly Heather D'Angelo

Exciting, fascinating, and never less than interesting -- key adjectives in describing the career of Beverly D'Angelo, which has been well past the four-decade mark. It is possible that she deserves better films that she would have been in, she was always the object of curiosity and was a pleasure to watch...whatever the role. Hollywood loved her vibrant persona, relaxed manner of speaking and ability to take scenes. Beverly Heather D'Angelo was born on November 15, 1951 in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of the musicians Priscilla Ruth (Smith) violinist and Eugene Constantino "Gene" D'Angelo an experienced bassist who also ran a television station. Howard Dwight Smith, her maternal grandfather was the Ohio ("Horseshoe") Stadium architect at Ohio State University. Her mother was an English, Irish and Scottish-born mother. Her father was Italian. Beverly was a student at an American school in Florence, Italy. At first, she was drawn to art. Beverly was a cartoonist/animator for Hanna-Barbera Productions before moving to Canada to pursue a career as a rock singer to make ends meet. she was an accompanist for sessions and sang anyplace she could -- from topless bars to coffeehouses. The young singer was asked to sing with Ronnie Hawkins, a rockabilly legend. Beverly's acting career took off when she left the Hawkins group and became part of the Charlottetown Festival repertory company. She was performing in Canada as Ophelia in "Kronborg 1582" which was a musical rock adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" when the world-renowned Colleen Dewhurst was able to see a show and recognized the potential in Beverly and the production. Then the musical director Gower Champion was added to the mix and the show was completely overhauled and became the musical rock "Rockabye Hamlet", which came to Broadway in the year 1976. While the show itself was only a short run the character of Beverly's Ophelia was a hit and she soon found herself in the West coast with film and TV opportunities. It was rare for her to return to the stage following that, but she did make an appearance alongside Ed Harris in 1995's off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard's "Simpatico", earning her Theatre World Award. The roles of The Sentinel (1977), and Annie Hall (1977) were her first TV roles. First Love (1977), Clint Eastwood's film Every Which Way but Loose (78) and the film version of the popular counterculture music Hair (1979) were just a few of the co-starring roles she played. One of the most memorable moments for Beverly was her explosive role as the singular Patsy Cline in the acclaimed biopic Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). SissySpacek who was another country star and Loretta Lynn's Oscar winner, also expertly recorded their voices.