Beverly Heather D'Angelo
Beverly D'Angelo's life has been fascinating, inspiring and always entertaining for the past four years. Even though she was in better films than she often appeared in, Beverly D'Angelo was still a captivating person to watch no matter what the role. Hardly the shrinking violet type, Hollywood counted on her for her vibrant persona, casual manner of speaking and ability to steal scenes. Beverly Heather D'Angelo was the daughter of Eugene Constantino Gene "Gene" D'Angelo and Priscilla Ruth Smith she was a violinist as well as bassist, who also owned a television 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 of German, Irish, Scottish and German descent, and her father was Italian. Beverly was educated in an American school in Florence, Italy. Beverly was initially drawn to art and was employed as an animator/cartoonist with Hanna-Barbera Productions. She then moved to Canada to pursue an opportunity in rock singing. To earn a living she would sing wherever she could anywhere from topless bars to cafes. She was invited to join Ronnie Hawkins, a rockabilly legend. Beverly's acting career started after she left Hawkins and joined the Charlottetown Festival. While on tour in Canada, Ophelia was playing the role of Ophelia in "Kronborg 1582", a musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Colleen Dewhurst saw potential in Beverly and the production. The show was later renamed Rockabye Hamlet after Gower Champion who was the musical director was added to the mix. While the show was not long-lived, Beverly's Ophelia received a lot of attention and soon she found herself on the West coast with film and TV roles. After this point she never returned to the stage, though she did appear with Ed Harris in the 1995 off-Broadway version of Sam Shepard's "Simpatico" that earned her the Theatre World Award. The role she played in the TV miniseries Captains and the Kings (1976) led to bit parts in The Sentinel (1977) and in the Woody Allen classic Annie Hall (1977). First Love (1977), Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and the film adaptations of the counterculture hit musical Hair (1979) were only several of the co-starring roles. One of the most memorable moments for Beverly was her stunning featured performance as the one-and-only Patsy Cline in the acclaimed biopic Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). SissySpacek, another singer from the country genre and Loretta Lynn's Oscar winner, also expertly voiced the characters.


Comments
Post a Comment