Lindsay Ann Crouse (born May 12, 1948) is an American
actress.
Crouse's theatrical family
Crouse was born in New York City, the daughter of Anna (née Erskine) and
Russel Crouse, a playwright.
[Film Reference. "Lindsay Crouse Biography (1948-)."] Her full name—Lindsay Ann Crouse—is an intentional tribute to the Broadway writing partnership of
Lindsay and Crouse. Her father, playwright
Russel Crouse, and his writing partner,
Howard Lindsay, wrote much of
The Sound of Music.
[Boston Globe. "Crouse plays the belle" by Wendy Killeen. July 22, 2007] Their 1946 play
State of the Union won that year's
Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Their last collaboration was
Mr. President 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."][New York Times. "Lindsay Crouse keeps up a Family Stage Tradition." January 2, 1981.]
Crouse's marriage with David Mamet
Crouse married another playwright, David Mamet, in 1977.[ Crouse caught Mamet's eye in the hockey classic Slap Shot.][ 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."][New York Times. "For Mamet and Crouse, A Movie is a Family Affair." October 11, 1987.] When Crouse and Mamet married, Crouse's mother took her aside and told her what Oscar Hammerstein 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."