Beverly Heather D'Angelo

Beverly D'Angelo's life that spans nearly four decades, is fascinating, inspiring and not less than captivating. While she may have been better than the roles she did, she was an interesting character to be watched no matter the role she played. Hollywood was impressed by her energetic character, casual manner of life, and scene-stealing abilities. Beverly Heather D'Angelo is the daughter of Eugene Constantino "Gene", musician and bass player, who was also the manager of a TV station. Her birthplace was in Columbus, Ohio on November 15th the 15th of November, 1951. Her maternal grandfather, Howard Dwight Smith, was the architect who designed the Ohio ("Horseshoe") Stadium at Ohio State University. Her mother was of English, Irish, Scottish, and German family ancestry. Her father was of Italian descent. Beverly was educated in an American school in Florence, Italy. Beverly was at first attracted by the arts and was animator and cartoonist for Hanna-Barbera Productions. She then moved to Canada to pursue a career in rock music. To make ends work, she sang anywhere she could anywhere from topless bars to cafes. The teenager was invited to sing with Ronnie Hawkins, a rockabilly legend. Beverly's acting career started when she left Hawkins and joined Charlottetown Festival. She was performing in Canada in the role of Ophelia in "Kronborg: 1582", a rock musical version of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" when the famous Colleen Dewhurst stumbled across a show and recognized the potential in Beverly and the production. In the end, Gower Champion was hired as the musical director. The show was reworked and became the musical rock "Rockabye Hamlet". It was able to make it to Broadway in 1976. Although the show was brief the character of Beverly's Ophelia was well-received and soon she found herself on the West coast with film and TV roles. It was rare for her to return to the stage after that, but she did make an appearance alongside Ed Harris in 1995's off-Broadway production Sam Shepard’s "Simpatico" which earned her a Theatre World Award. She appeared in the TV miniseries Captains and the Kings (1976) which she later reprised as the role of a minor character in The Sentinel (1977), and Annie Hall (1977), both Woody Allen classics. First Love (1977), Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way but Loose (1978) as well as the films adaptations of the anti-culture smash musical Hair (1979) were only a few of the co-starring parts. Beverly's best performance was that of Patsy Cline (the one and only) in the biopic Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). She and Sissy Spacek, a friend of fellow country singer Loretta Lynn, both performed the vocals with aplomb.