- published: 11 Nov 2014
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Beverly Heather D'Angelo (born November 15, 1951) is an American actress and singer.
D'Angelo was born in Columbus, Ohio, the daughter of Priscilla (née Smith), a violinist, and Gene D'Angelo, a bass player and television station manager. She is of Italian ancestry. Her maternal grandfather, Howard Dwight Smith, was the architect who designed Ohio Stadium, also known as "the Horseshoe" at Ohio State University. She has three brothers, Jeff, Tim and Tony.
D'Angelo began work in the theatre, appearing on Broadway in 1976 in Rockabye Hamlet (also known as Kronborg: 1582) a musical based on Shakespeare's Hamlet.
D'Angelo made her 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 movies in the late 1970s, including Every Which Way But Loose, Hair, and Coal Miner's Daughter, the latter earning her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress and 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 three Vacation sequels and a short film from 1985 through 2010. D'Angelo received an Emmy nomination for her performance in the 1984 TV movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire. In 1992, she had a guest appearance in the third season of The Simpsons as Lurleen Lumpkin, a beautiful Southern country singer and waitress, in "Colonel Homer", and sixteen years later in 2008, she appeared in the nineteenth season—as the same character—in the episode "Papa Don't Leech".