Beverly D'Angelo

Beverly Heather D'Angelo (born November 15, 1951) is an American actress who starred as Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon's Vacation films (1983–2015) and musician. She has appeared in over 60 films and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role as Patsy Cline in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), and for an Emmy Award for her role as Stella Kowalski in the TV film A Streetcar Named Desire (1984). D'Angelo's other film roles include Sheila Franklin in Hair (1979) and Doris Vinyard in American History X (1998).

D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla Ruth (née Smith), a violinist, and Eugene Constantino "Gene" D'Angelo Jr. a bass player and television station manager at WBNS-TV in Columbus. Her father was of Italian descent. Her paternal grandparents, Eugenio and Rosina D'Angelo were from Introdacqua in the Abruzzo region of Italy. She has three brothers, Jeff, Tim and Tony. Their maternal grandfather, Howard Dwight Smith, was an architect who designed the Ohio Stadium, nicknamed "the Horseshoe" at Ohio State University.

D'Angelo attended Upper Arlington High School in Upper Arlington, Ohio, a northwest Columbus suburb. In 2009, she was awarded the Upper Arlington Alumni Association (UAAA) Distinguished Alumnus Award for achievement in her career.

D'Angelo worked as an illustrator at Hanna-Barbera Studios and as a singer before pursuing an interest in acting. While living for a period in Canada, she was a backup singer for American-born rockabilly singer Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins' band The Hawks. After going out on their own they became The Band, a group that is considered legendary.

D'Angelo began acting in the theatre, appearing on Broadway in 1976 in Rockabye Hamlet (also known as Kronborg: 1582), a musical based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. She made her television debut in the first three episodes of the TV mini-series Captains and the Kings in 1976.

After gaining a minor role in Annie Hall in 1977, D'Angelo appeared in a string of hit films in the late 1970s including Every Which Way but Loose, Hair, and Coal Miner's Daughter, the last earning her a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her performance as Patsy Cline. She won a Country Music Association award for Album of the Year.

Her biggest break came in 1983 starring with Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's Vacation in the role of Ellen Griswold. She reprised this role in four Vacation sequels (1985's National Lampoon's European Vacation, 1989's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, 1997's Vegas Vacation, and 2015's Vacation), and the 2010 short film Hotel Hell Vacation. In the 1980s, she starred in many other comedy films such as Maid to Order (1987) and High Spirits (1988); in the mid-1990s she acted primarily in independent films. In 1994, D'Angelo returned to the stage and won a Theatre World Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway play Simpatico. In 1998, she played Doris Vinyard (the mother of Edward Norton's character) in the crime drama American History X.

She received an Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Stella Kowalski in the 1984 TV film version of A Streetcar Named Desire. She later had main roles in a number of made-for-television dramatic films, including Slow Burn (1986), Hands of a Stranger (1987), Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993), Menendez: A Killing in Beverly Hills (1994), and Sweet Temptation (1996). In the 2000s, D'Angelo had a recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as defense attorney Rebecca Balthus. She also worked as a voice actress. In 1992 she had a guest appearance in the third season of The Simpsons as Lurleen Lumpkin, a Southern country singer and waitress in the "Colonel Homer" episode. Sixteen years later in 2008, she appeared in the nineteenth season as the same character in the episode "Papa Don't Leech", and again in 2025 during season 36 in the episode "P.S., I Hate You" .