BEVERLY D'ANGELO: WHAT I KNOW NOW

THE NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION ACTRESS SHARES WHAT SHE'S LEARNED ABOUT LIFE AND LOVE OVER FIVE DECADES IN SHOW BUSINESS

- ERIC ANDERSSON

"I've always been a storyteller," says Beverly D'Angelo. And her anecdotes don't disappoint. During a wide-ranging interview with People, the actress-best known as Griswold family matriarch Ellen in the National Lampoon's Vacation comedies-recalls singing at a topless bar (she remained clothed), falling in love with Al Pacino and standing up to legends like Burt Reynolds. She has lived a remarkable life, one that began in Upper Arlington, Ohio, where her parents, media exec Gene and Priscilla, a violinist and homemaker, instilled in her the idea that "you can do anything and be anybody." 

She took that seriously. After heading to California at age 17, D'Angelo worked as an inker and painter at Hanna-Barbera, embarked on a singing career and performed on Broadway in an avant-garde Hamlet musical ("I had to strangle myself with a microphone cord") before finding success in movies like Hair, Coal Miner's Daughter and the Vacation franchise. In the new comedic thriller Violent Night, she plays a foulmouthed mom whose family is saved by Santa Claus (David Harbour) after they're held hostage.

Though she's never been rescued by St. Nick in real life, D'Angelo, 71, who shares 21-year-old twins Anton and Olivia with Pacino, 82, has had quite a journey, filled with incredible stories and, of course, lessons.

Everyone has to start somewhere. (And that somewhere might have nudity.) 

D'Angelo made her way from California to Canada before making it big. "I would look in the newspaper for singing jobs," she recalls. "And one of them was this little jazz band, and the organ player said, 'I just got a steady gig at a topless bar [in Toronto]. Why don't you come sing?' I sang fully clothed in a long, black gown between two girls who were on big oil drums. Every 40 minutes I would say, 'Gentlemen, it's swing time. The girls would sit on trapezes and swing over the patrons."