From Ellen Griswold to Patsy Cline: Beverly D’Angelo’s Return to Music in New Documentary

Famed as beleaguered wife and mom Ellen Griswold in the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” series, Beverly D’Angelo really wanted to be a singer!

Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Beverly headed for Hollywood at age 17 after high school and got a job at Hanna Barbera Cartoon Studios. She then trekked to Canada as a studio vocalist, working as a backup singer for Ronnie Hawkins.

Next, Beverly sang in the Broadway musical “Rockabye Hamlet.”

“I kind of sang my way into the movies,” she says. “When that Broadway show closed, the doors that opened weren’t from record companies as much as film opportunities.”

Beverly had a small role in Woody Allen’s 1977 film “Annie Hall” and admits she was “so naive about filmmaking. I didn’t have a TV, I didn’t go to movies, so I wasn’t the least bit intimidated. I didn’t know at the time that Woody was held in such high regard. He seemed very nice, but it was one day. My path didn’t cross with his again.”

After appearing in the 1979 film version of “Hair,” she got to sing as Patsy Cline in the 1980 classic “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

“I was very, very confident about playing Patsy,” recalls Beverly. “What I didn’t have confidence about was the machination of filmmaking. I’m a musician at heart. With music, I can sit at my piano right now and sing if I want to, and it speaks to me.”

Still, her claim to fame is the popular “Vacation” series of comedies.

“The life-changing aspect is how much the public connected with Ellen Griswold with so much love,” Beverly explain. “I’m grateful that these films have brought smiles to so many people.”

Today at 73, Beverly is “making a documentary about my getting back to singing where I first began – with me singing Patsy’s songs. I am going to drive cross country and warm up my voice, stop in little roadside places, and see what it’s like to go into that part of America that everyone ignores and just be someone who wants to sing for people.”