Follow YOUR DREAMS

The National Lampoon's Vacation alum shares her thoughts on life, creativity and Patsy Cline

- Susan Hornik

Before she became known around the world as Ellen Griswold, the smarter parent in the National Lampoon’s Vacation series, Beverly D’Angelo was a singer.

She got her performing start in Canada as a backup singer for influential roots rocker Ronnie Hawkins. In 1979, she starred in the movie musical Hair. She also enjoyed the opportunity to display her vocal chops in 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter with a portrayal of country legend Patsy Cline that earned Beverly a Golden Globe nomination. “I had always harbored a desire to sing,” Beverly, 73, tells Closer, “but I never thought of it as being something that I could do as a career.”

Recently, her life has come full circle with Patsy Cline: Walkin’ After Midnight, a star-studded tribute concert in which Beverly performs “Too Many Secrets.” This episode of Great Performances, which also contains archival interviews about Patsy’s life and career, is available on PBS Passport.

Tell us about your early life.

I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, but I left there very early, right after I got out of high school at 17. I came out to California and I got a job at Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Studios. I’d studied art. I’m sure my parents thought it would just be a summer job, but when I came out in ’69 everything was happening.

A lot different than Columbus!

Yes. The choices I was given in Columbus, Ohio were: get married or go to school and major in a subject that you would then teach and then get married and have kids. So, I was really on the cutting edge of that kind of liberation. And singing was kind of a secret dream of mine.