Beverly Heather D'Angelo

The career of Beverly D'Angelo has been fascinating, inspiring and always fascinating for over four years. While she might have appeared in better films than she was usually in, she was still a captivating person you should keep an eye on regardless of what role she was in. A far cry from the shrinking violet, Hollywood counted on her for her colorful appearance, affable manner and ability to steal scenes. Beverly Heather D'Angelo was the daughter of Eugene Constantino Gene "Gene" D'Angelo and Priscilla Ruth Smith who was a violinist, as well as bass player who also had a TV station. Her maternal grandfather, Howard Dwight Smith, was the architect responsible for the design of the Ohio ("Horseshoe") Stadium 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. The first time she was attracted to art, Beverly worked as a animator/cartoonist at Hanna-Barbera Productions before moving to Canada to pursue a career in rock music in order to earn a living. she became a session vocalist and sang wherever she could -- from coffeehouses to topless bars. At one point , the teen was invited to perform with rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins. Beverly's acting career started after she quit Hawkins and joined Charlottetown Festival. She was traveling across Canada in the role of Ophelia in "Kronborg 1582" A musical rock version of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" when the renowned Colleen Dewhurst was able to see a show and was impressed by the potential of Beverly and the production. The show was changed to Rockabye Hamlet after Gower Champion who was the musical director joined the mix. Even though the show ran only for a few weeks, Beverly's Ophelia received a prestigious review and soon she was finding herself on the West coast with TV and film opportunities. After this point she was never back on the stage, but she did appear with Ed Harris in the 1995 off-Broadway version of Sam Shepard's "Simpatico" which won her a Theatre World Award. Parts in The Sentinel (1977), and Annie Hall (1977) were her first TV parts. First Love (1977), Clint Eastwood's co-starring film Every Which Way but Loose (78) and the film adaptation of the popular counter-culture hit Hair (1979) were a few of her co-starring roles. Beverly's finest performance was of Patsy Cline (the one and only) in the biopic Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). She as well as Sissy Spacek, who was a co-star with country music star Loretta Lynn, each provided their vocals with skill.