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Beverly D’Angelo knows she’s part of many families’ holiday traditions, though she never expected to be.
D’Angelo, 73, tells PEOPLE that the success — and enduring legacy — of 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the third movie in which she played matriarch Ellen Griswold, took everyone by surprise. “Honestly, I never imagined it, and I don’t care what anybody says, nobody imagined that 40 years down the line or however long it’s been, that the Griswolds would be part of our culture,” she says.
But the key, she thinks, is that “everybody identifies with some Griswold character, and there’s just something about that family.” D’Angelo and Chevy Chase played Ellen and Clark in 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation, 1985’s National Lampoon’s European Vacation, Christmas Vacation and 1997’s Vegas Vacation.
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And though fans were in it for the laughs, D’Angelo says, “I always viewed it as a love story.” In each movie, the titular vacation gets increasingly out of hand, but, she says, “Love conquers all at the end of the day. Everyone goes through this disaster, and they come out whole.”
Fans’ bonding with the comedy series started with the first movie. “They didn’t watch the movie and go, ‘Haha, look at those funny people.’ . . . It was, ‘Look at us.’ ” Fans saw their own holiday hijinks mirrored with the Griswolds.
Though the movie was successful, D’Angelo didn’t realize it was reaching holiday cult status until her kids, twins Anton and Olivia Pacino (who she shares with ex Al Pacino), were in middle school and told her that their friends liked it.
“I got an idea that it was starting to get into the culture the same way that when I was a kid, I watched The Wizard of Oz every Christmas,” she said.
D’Angelo had reunited over the years with Chase, who she says is like a “brother” and she’s stayed close to over the years, as well as other castmates from the films. Over the weekend, she, Chase, Randy Quaid (who played Cousin Eddie) and Juliette Lewis (who played Audrey Griswold in Christmas Vacation) reunited at Rhode Island Comic Con.
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“That’s been really nice,” she says of seeing her former castmates at fan events. “The older you get, the more meaningful it is to have common references. Seeing Chevy, seeing Randy, seeing Juliette, you know, we have that common thing where we were all together making this movie.”
But she also relishes connecting with fans. “I’m a real cinema buff and I understand what it’s like to watch a movie, see a story and see characters and feel that something has opened up in me,” she says. “ . . . What I like about it is I have an opportunity, eye to eye, to say ‘I see you, I hear you’ and an autograph is just like a memento.”
courtesy Wyndham
“To me, especially at this stage, there’s really nothing more important than that connection in the moment and feeling like I’ve made a human connection,” she explains.
To help foster connection this holiday season, D’Angelo has partnered with Wyndham Rewards. Beginning today, any Wyndham Rewards member can visit the website and get a complimentary, one-level status bump to make this holiday season a little smoother.
“I teamed up with Wyndham Rewards this year because they have the most generous program so you can take the stress out of the holidays,” D’Angelo says. “We love our relatives, but do we want to live with them?”
Her two brothers and their families will be heading to her house for their holidays, but they won’t be sleeping there. “[That way] we don’t have to talk about, oh, the thermostat’s too high, the thermostat’s too low, where do you do the laundry.”
Wyndham Rewards members have from now through December 31 to request their one-level membership bump, which can unlock perks like early check-in, late checkout and room upgrades. New members who make an account now can also get bumped from the entry level, Blue, up to the second level, Gold. Members who are already at the highest level, Diamond, can register and receive five times the points through stays completed by Dec. 31.
