Growing up, Beverly D’Angelo wanted to be a cheerleader at Upper Arlington High School. She tried out but was named first alternate, despite in her mind, being a shoo-in. “I think the reason that I was made an alternate cheerleader, and not the big deal cheerleader, was because, statistically speaking there’s always a cheerleader that gets knocked up,” she told Columbus Monthly in December 2020. “They probably looked at me like, ‘that’s the one.’”
Her father Gene was a first generation Italian American. He was a musician (trombone & stand-up bass). Her mother Priscilla was not only beautiful but born into a prominent Columbus family. Priscilla’s father, Howard Dwight Smith, was the architect who designed Ohio Stadium.
In the summer of 1949, Gene met Priscilla Ruth Smith at an Upper Arlington swimming pool. Upon spotting her, Gene walked up and said, “are you seeing anybody?” She said, “yeah, a couple of guys.”
He didn’t call until a week later because he lost her number and had to go through seventeen Smiths in the phone book before he got to her.
They eloped four months later.
Beverly was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 15, 1951, and was the second oldest with three brothers – Jeff, Tim & Tony. After giving music a go for seven years, Gene pivoted and entered the broadcast business in 1955. He eventually became chairman and president of WBNS-TV, owned by the wealthy Wolfe family.
While growing up, Beverly spent a summer in Italy. The experience opened her eyes to the world beyond suburban Columbus.
After graduating from Upper Arlington High School in 1969, she moved to LA and with her father’s connection, accepted an inker / painter position with Hanna-Barbara Animation Studios.
Beverly became influenced by Janis Joplin and the counterculture / flower child lifestyle of the early 70s. And she always wanted to sing. So, she decided to move to Toronto, Canada and began singing folk music at coffee shops and bars. She developed a solid reputation as a session vocalist.
In 1976, she was invited to sing with American-born rockabilly singer Rompin’ Ronnie Hawkins and his band ‘The Hawks’. Hawkins, however, was busted for drugs and the band broke up.
She then turned to acting, touring with a repertory company production of ‘Rockabye Hamlet,’ the rock-n-roll version of Hamlet. Her acting skills got her noticed by two producers. The show moved to Broadway later that year but closed almost immediately after its premiere.
In 1977 she landed her first movie role in Woody Allen’s ‘Annie Hall,’ earning her a Screen Actors Guild card. In 1978 she appeared in ‘Every which way but Loose’.
Then she auditioned for a part in the hippie-themed musical ‘Hair’ directed by Academy Award winner Milos Forman (1979). They began a torrid love affair. He was married and 47. She was 28. Word had gotten out of the affair. She became overwhelmed and fled to London. He called and pleaded for her to return. She did. And she got the part.
Beverly portrayed country singer Patsy Cline in 1980 in ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Sissy Spacek won the Academy Award in her portrayal of Loretta Lynn in the movie. The movie’s soundtrack went gold reaching the top 40 on the Billboard 200.
Beverly has been described as smart as a whip, quick with a comeback, funny, passionate, earthy, sophisticated, complicated, a self-styled bad girl, and hilarious.
Her life in the 1980s began with an ill fated marriage to an Italian duke followed by work related flings. “My life has been a series of relationships guided by love,” says Beverly. “Everything I’ve done is because I’ve loved someone.”
In 1983, she got her big break – starring with Chevy Chase in ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’. She played Clark’s level-headed but quirky wife Ellen Griswold. Beverly almost turned the part down because she was 30 and thought herself too young to be playing the mom of a teenager. Her agent told her it was “very funny,” and she said when she met Chase, “it was like meeting my brother.”
The movie was a box office hit. The marriage to the duke evaporated.
She had an affair with designer Anton Furst (‘Full Metal Jacket’ and ‘Batman’), an Academy Award winning production designer. She says she fell in love, but he called off the relationship. A couple of years later he committed suicide by jumping off a building (1991).
She became involved with actor Al Pacino from 1997 to 2003. She got pregnant at age 48 and had twins – a son (Anton) & daughter (Olivia) – at 49. They were born Jan 25, 2001.
Beverly wrote a novel after her breakup with Al Pacino in 2003 called ‘Once Upon a Nanny’ about a woman who gives birth to twins at 49 and is a single mom at 52. Publishers offered to print and release it if she wrote it in the first person. She refused.
Despite running away from Columbus right out of high school, she admits that the foundation of her upbringing is responsible for “any rock solidness that I have.”
Beverly D’Angelo appeared in five ‘Vacation’ movies with Chevy Chase. The most successful domestically was ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’ in 1989 grossing $78 million at the box office.
The cast had a reunion at the Fan Expo in Chicago on Aug 17, 2025. Chevy Chase is now 81, Randy Quaid 74 and Beverly D’Angelo 73.
She has appeared in over 130 films & television roles. She earned a nomination for a Golden Globe, a nomination for an Emmy Award and a Golden Reel Award nomination for her singing in ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’.
Beverly appeared in three movie releases in 2024. Her latest ‘No Address’ with William Baldwin was released in February 2025 and is about a group of people who suddenly become homeless.
Beverly has been known to show up to an Upper Arlington High School Reunion or two. In August 2022 she posted a video on her Facebook page in support of the teachers’ union in the Columbus city schools strike.
Sources: ‘National Lampoon’s Beverly D’Angelo’ by Olivia Bellusci, July 10, 2025, yahoo.com; ‘Beverly D’Angelo’, improv.com; ‘Beverly D’Angelo Biography’ by Craig Harris, allmusic.com; ‘Beverly D’Angelo facts for kids’, https://kids.kiddle.co; ‘Beverly D’Angelo has no regrets’ by Peter Tonguette, December, 2020, Columbus Monthly; ‘Longtime WBNS executive, musician ‘Gene’ D’Angelo dies at 90’, Columbus Dispatch, Nov 19, 2018, www.dispatch.com; Chevy Chase reunites with ‘Christmas Vacation’ cast by Victoria Edel, Aug 22, 2025, people.com; Columbus Education Association, www.facebook.com; Featured pictures are courtesy of Columbus Monthly.