Lindsay Crouse
Encyclopedia
Early life
Crouse was born in New York City, the daughter of Anna (née Erskine) and Russel CrouseRussel Crouse
Russel Crouse was an American playwright and librettist, best known for his work in the Broadway writing partnership of Lindsay and Crouse.-Life and career:...
, a playwright. Her full name—Lindsay Ann Crouse—is an intentional tribute to the Broadway writing partnership of Lindsay and Crouse
Lindsay and Crouse
Lindsay and Crouse was the writing team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who collaborated famously from 1935 to 1962 on a succession of Broadway comedies and musicals. Their first collaboration was the rewriting of the libretto of Anything Goes , which became a major hit and has been...
. Her father and his writing partner, Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay was an American theatrical producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life with...
, wrote much of The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
. Their 1946 play State of the Union
State of the Union (play)
State of the Union is a play by American playwrights Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay about a fictional Republican presidential candidate. The play premiered on November 14, 1945 at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway, ran for 765 performances, and closed on September 13, 1947...
won that year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
. Their last collaboration was Mr. President
Mr. President (musical)
Mr. President is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and lyrics and music by Irving Berlin.It focuses on U.S. President Stephen Decatur Henderson, who loses his bid for re-election following a disastrous trip to the Soviet Union...
in 1962. "In our family, the work ethic was held up as some kind of byword," Crouse says. "At any hour, somebody's typewriter was going."
Acting career
After graduating from Radcliffe CollegeRadcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
in 1970, Crouse began her performing career as a modern and jazz dancer but she soon switched to acting and made her broadway debut in Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
in 1972.
Crouse's film career began in 1976, with a small roles in television and theatrical movies. In 1977 she appeared as Lily Braden, the discontented wife of hockey player Ned Braden, in the comedy classic Slap Shot
Slap Shot (film)
Slap Shot is a 1977 film comedy starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean directed by George Roy Hill. It depicts a minor league hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declining factory town.- Plot :...
. Crouse was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for her role in the 1984 movie Places in the Heart
Places in the Heart
Places in the Heart is a 1984 drama film that tells the story of a Texas widow who tries to keep her farm together with the help of a blind white man and an African-American man during the Great Depression...
. Among her films was a starring role in House of Games
House of Games
House of Games is David Mamet's 1987 film directorial debut. Mamet wrote the screenplay himself, from a story he devised with Jonathan Katz. The film's cast includes Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, and J. T. Walsh.-Plot:...
, the 1987 film directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and written by her then-husband David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
in which she plays Margaret Ford, a psychiatrist who is intrigued by the art of the con
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
. "It's always hard to be directed by someone who's close to you," Crouse says. "Because everybody needs to go home and complain about the director. Everybody."
Crouse has appeared in featured and guest roles in a number of television series. Notable roles include a recurring portrayal of Kate McBride, a lesbian police officer on Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
during its sixth season in 1986, one of the earliest appearances of a lesbian character in a major American TV show. Crouse is also known for her role in the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, wherein she was a recurring supporting cast member playing Professor Maggie Walsh
Maggie Walsh
Professor Maggie Walsh is a fictional character in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The character is portrayed by Lindsay Crouse.-History:...
. Crouse has also guest-starred on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
, Columbo, Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
, Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
, ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, Millennium
Millennium (TV series)
Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files. Millennium aired on the Fox Network from 1996 to 1999. The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, though most episodes were ostensibly set in or around Seattle, Washington...
, and NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
.
In recent years, Crouse has concentrated on the theater. "Once you get your driver's license, you end your film career," says Crouse. "Look at my generation. Great actresses like Glenn Close and Susan Sarandon -- there's nothing written for anyone over a certain age." In 2007 Crouse opened a revival of The Belle of Amherst
The Belle of Amherst
The Belle of Amherst is a one-woman play by William Luce.Based on the life of poet Emily Dickinson from 1830-1886, and set in her Amherst, Massachusetts home, the play makes use of her work, diaries, and letters to recollect her encounters with the significant people in her life - family, close...
, a one woman show about the life of poet Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
, at the Gloucester Stage in Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
. "You can't stop and recite something," says Crouse. "You have to keep the poetry very, very active, which is pretty easy with Dickinson. She was striving so hard to understand what life was about. It's very dramatic poetry in that way.
Crouse appeared in Lee Blessing's Going to St. Ives with the Gloucester Stage Company during the summer of 2008 and provided the narration for Virginia Lee Burton: A Sense of Place, a documentary film about Virginia Lee Burton.
Personal life
Crouse married playwright David MametDavid Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
in 1977. Crouse caught Mamet's eye in the hockey classic Slap Shot
Slap Shot (film)
Slap Shot is a 1977 film comedy starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean directed by George Roy Hill. It depicts a minor league hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declining factory town.- Plot :...
. When he heard she had a part in his play Reunion at the Yale Repertory Theater, Mamet packed a bag and told a friend, "I'm going to New Haven to marry Lindsay Crouse." When the two did indeed wed, Crouse's mother took her aside and told her what Oscar Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein II
Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...
had told her when she married Russel Crouse: "A playwright's wife is the only woman who knows how her husband feels when she's having a baby."
John Lahr writes in his book Show and Tell: New Yorker Profiles that when Mamet married Crouse in 1978, he "married into show business aristocracy." Lahr also writes that Mamet got his first screenwriting assignment through Crouse. Crouse was on her way to audition for Bob Rafelson
Bob Rafelson
Robert "Bob" Rafelson is an Emmy Award winning American film director, writer and producer. He was an early member of the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s and is most famous for directing and co-writing the film Five Easy Pieces, starring Jack Nicholson, as well as being one of the creators of...
's 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981 film)
The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1981 film adaptation of the 1934 novel by the same name by James M. Cain. The film was produced by Lorimar and originally released theatrically in North America by Paramount Pictures. This version, based on a screenplay by David Mamet and directed by Bob...
and Mamet told Crouse to tell Rafelson that "he was a fool if he didn't hire me to write the screenplay." Although Mamet was joking, Crouse did it and Rafelson called Mamet and asked Mamet why he should hire him for the screenplay. "Because I'll give you a good screenplay or a sincere apology," said Mamet. Mamet got the job.
Crouse and Mamet have two daughters, Willa and Zosia. They divorced in 1990. Crouse is now married to Rick Blue, a television director and editor.
Crouse's brother is Timothy Crouse
Timothy Crouse
-Family:Timothy Crouse's affinity for campaign reporters and the theater took root thanks to his father, Russel Crouse, who was a career newspaperman and playwright. "The stories he told me of his newspaper days—especially traveling around the country with prankish sports teams—had a fatal tinge of...
, author of The Boys on the Bus
The Boys on the Bus
The Boys on the Bus is author Timothy Crouse's seminal non-fiction book detailing life on the road for reporters covering the 1972 United States presidential campaign....
about political journalism during the 1972 presidential campaign. Timothy Crouse also co-authored a new libretto for the musical Anything Goes
Anything Goes
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London...
with John Weidman
John Weidman
John Weidman is an American librettist. He is the son of librettist and novelist Jerome Weidman.He has written the books for a wide variety of stage musicals, three in collaboration with Stephen Sondheim: Pacific Overtures, Assassins, and Road Show...
that opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre
Vivian Beaumont Theatre
The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a theatre located in the Lincoln Center complex at 150 West 65th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The structure was designed by Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen, and Jo Mielziner was responsible for the design of the stage and interior.The Vivian...
on Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
on October 19, 1987, and ran for 784 performances.
Buddhist beliefs
Crouse is a Buddhist and since 2005 has organized an annual Buddhist educational program at a retreat at Windhover in Rockport, MassachusettsRockport, Massachusetts
Rockport is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,952 at the 2010 census. Rockport is located approximately 25 miles northeast of Boston at the tip of the Cape Ann peninsula...
. "[Buddhism] is not an exclusive club. It has something to offer everyone at all levels," says Crouse. "Buddhism is dynamic and has captured the interests of Americans. Even our quantum physics validate[s] ideas the Buddha taught 2,500 years ago."
Filmography
- All the President's MenAll the President's Men (film)All the President's Men is a 1976 Academy Award-winning political thriller film based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two journalists investigating the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post...
(1976) - Between the Lines (1977)
- Slap Shot (1977)
- Prince of the CityPrince of the CityPrince of the City is an American crime drama film about an NYPD officer who chooses to expose police corruption for idealistic reasons. The character of Daniel Ciello was based on real-life NYPD Narcotics Detective Robert Leuci and the script was based on Robert Daley's 1978 book of the same name...
(1981) - The VerdictThe VerdictThe Verdict is a 1982 courtroom drama film which tells the story of a down-on-his-luck alcoholic lawyer who pushes a medical malpractice case in order to improve his own situation, but discovers along the way that he is doing the right thing. Since the lawsuit involves a woman in a persistent...
(1982) - KrullKrull (film)Krull is a 1983 heroic fantasy film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Ron Silverman. Released by Columbia Pictures, it stars Ken Marshall as Prince Colwyn and Lysette Anthony as Princess Lyssa....
(1983) (re-dubbed dialogue only) - Daniel (1983)
- Iceman (1984)
- Places in the HeartPlaces in the HeartPlaces in the Heart is a 1984 drama film that tells the story of a Texas widow who tries to keep her farm together with the help of a blind white man and an African-American man during the Great Depression...
(1984) - House of GamesHouse of GamesHouse of Games is David Mamet's 1987 film directorial debut. Mamet wrote the screenplay himself, from a story he devised with Jonathan Katz. The film's cast includes Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, and J. T. Walsh.-Plot:...
(1987) - Lemon SkyLemon SkyLemon Sky is a 1970 play by Lanford Wilson first produced at Cafe La Mama. The story is about a fresh out of high school teen from the midwest moving to San Diego, California in the 1950s to live with his estranged father and new family...
(1988) - Columbo:Sex and the Married Detective (1989)
- CommunionCommunion (1989 film)Communion is a 1989 drama/thriller film based on the book of the same name by Whitley Strieber. Starring Christopher Walken and Frances Sternhagen, it tells a story of a family that experiences the extraterrestrial phenomenon while on vacation at a remote vacation home in the wilderness...
(1989) - Desperate HoursDesperate HoursDesperate Hours is a 1990 remake of the 1955 William Wyler crime drama of the same title. Both films are based on the novel by Joseph Hayes, who also co-wrote the script for this movie with Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal...
(1990) - Being Human (1993)
- Parallel LivesParallel Lives (film)Parallel Lives is a 1994 TV movie, directed by Linda Yellen. The movie resumes some actors and similar patterns of the previous Yellen's work, Chantilly Lace...
(1994) - Out of DarknessOut of DarknessOut of Darkness was a 1994 made-for-TV movie starring singer Diana Ross. It earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a TV Movie....
(1994) - Bye Bye LoveBye Bye Love (film)Bye Bye Love is a 1995 American comedy-drama film that deals with the central issue of divorce. It was directed by Sam Weisman and written by Gary David Goldberg and Brad Hall...
(1995) - The Indian in the CupboardThe Indian in the Cupboard (film)The Indian in the Cupboard is a 1995 American fantasy film based on the children's book of the same name by Lynne Reid Banks. The story is about a boy who receives a cupboard as a gift on his ninth birthday...
(1995) - If These Walls Could TalkIf These Walls Could TalkIf These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 made for television movie, broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three different women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the three stories takes place in the same house, 22 years each: 1952, 1974, and 1996. All three segments were co-written by...
(1996) - MillenniumMillennium (TV series)Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files. Millennium aired on the Fox Network from 1996 to 1999. The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, though most episodes were ostensibly set in or around Seattle, Washington...
(1996) - Norma Jean & MarilynNorma Jean & MarilynNorma Jean & Marilyn is a 1996 made-for-TV biographical film produced by Home Box Office and premiered on May 18, 1996. The film featured Ashley Judd as Norma Jean Dougherty and Mira Sorvino as Marilyn Monroe...
(1996) - The ArrivalThe Arrival (film)The Arrival is a 1996 science fiction film directed by David Twohy and starring Charlie Sheen, and co-starring Lindsay Crouse, Richard Schiff, Ron Silver, and Teri Polo...
(1996) - The JurorThe JurorThe Juror is a 1996 American romantic thriller film based on the novel by George Dawes Green, directed by Brian Gibson and starring Demi Moore as Annie Laird, a single mother picked for jury duty for a mafia trial. The film was released on 2 February 1996...
(1996) - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
- Prefontaine (1997)
- Progeny (1998)
- The InsiderThe Insider (film)The Insider is a 1999 film based on the true story of a 60 Minutes television series segment, as seen through the eyes of a real tobacco executive, Jeffrey Wigand. The 60 Minutes story originally aired in November 1995 in an altered form because of objections by CBS’ then-owner, Laurence Tisch, who...
(1999) - Almost Salinas (2001)
- CherishCherish (film)Cherish is a 2002 comedy-drama film written and directed by Finn Taylor. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 14, 2002 and had a limited theatrical release June 7 of that same year...
(2002) - Impostor (2002)
- Mr. BrooksMr. BrooksMr. Brooks is a 2007 thriller film directed by Bruce A. Evans starring Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, and William Hurt. It was released on June 1, 2007...
(2007) - Law and Order Special Victims Unit (2010–2011)