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What Happened to Beverly D’Angelo? Where the ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’ Star Is Now
Golden Globe nominee Beverly D’Angelo became a familiar face around Christmastime thanks to her role as Ellen Griswold in 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. She appeared in multiple films throughout the franchise before undergoing a huge change in her personal life in 2001. Keep scrolling to find out what happened to the holiday film maven.
What Happened to Beverly D’Angelo?
The Ohio native, born in 1951, made her acting debut in the 1976 television series Captains and the Kings. Even before sharing the screen with Chevy Chase in several films, Beverly earned critical acclaim for her portrayal of Patsy Cline in 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter. The multitalented performer first made her mark as the Griswold family matriarch in the 1983 comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation.
Though she lit up the screen playing Ellen, Beverly didn’t initially think it was a role meant for her. “I was so sure that I wasn’t the right person,” she told People in December 2022, adding, “I really didn’t know what my direction was going to be.”
Still, she decided to go for it with some encouragement from her agent and her husband at the time, Don Lorenzo Salviati. The former couple were married from 1981 to 1995. She explained in an interview with People that they had a mutual understanding that they were allowed to have other partners during their marriage. When Beverly met Al Pacino and grew feelings for him, she made the revelation to her then-husband over the phone.
“I said, ‘I’m in love.’ He goes, ‘Oh, Beverly, who is it this time?’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s an actor.’ He went, ‘An actor? No, no, not an actor.’ And I said, ‘I really love him and we’re talking about having kids and he thinks it’s crazy that I’m married and now I’m thinking it is too,” she explained.
Once the Emmy nominee told Lorenzo that Al was the man she wanted to be with, they had an amicable divorce. Beverly began dating The Godfather actor in 1997.
How Many Children Does Beverly D’Angelo Have?
Starting a family was on Beverly and Al’s minds from the very start of their relationship and was often a topic of conversation.
“I had a fantasy that when you have kids, you do it in a family setting,” Beverly revealed in a July 2017 interview with Closer. “After we’d known each other for three months, [Al] looked me in the eyes and said, ‘I want you to be the mother of my children.’ That’s all I had to hear.”
The couple got their wish when they found out the Law & Order alum was pregnant with twins. She gave birth to kids Anton and Olivia with Al in 2001.
“I got pregnant at 48, delivered six weeks after I was 49 and by 51, I was looking at a landscape as a single parent,” she said.
While the Hollywood duo decided to end their relationship in 2003, they’ve both put their differences aside for the sake of their kids.
“The key thing is creating a new history and moving on from whatever dissolved that relationship to the new one of coparenting,” the Hair actress admitted.
Where Is Beverly D’Angelo Now?
After becoming a mom, Beverly returned to work, starring as Barbara Miller in Entourage for 25 episodes from 2005 to 2011. She has also appeared in other popular television series like Mom, Cougar Town and Insatiable. In 2022, Beverly returned to her roots, starring as Gertrude Lightstone in Violent Night, a Christmas action-comedy film.
While Violent Night’s storyline is drastically different from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, she assured fans that the underlying messages of the films are the same.
“The fans of Christmas Vacation — and really all of those Vacation movies — are so loyal,” she told Entertainment Weekly in December 2022. “There’s something about the way that the Griswolds have seeped into our national culture, and I’d love the Lightstones to be in there too. Here’s the thing about Christmas Vacation and Violent Night. [I] don’t want to give spoilers, but the bottom line is, love conquers all.”
