Lindsay Ann Crouse (born May 12, 1948) is an American
actress.
Early life
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 and his writing partner,
Howard Lindsay, wrote much of
The Sound of Music.
[Killeen, Wendy. "Crouse plays the belle." Boston Globe. 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."]["Lindsay Crouse keeps up a Family Stage Tradition." New York Times. January 2, 1981.]
Acting career
After graduating from Radcliffe 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 in 1972. She may be best known for her starring role in House of Games, the 1987 film directed and written by Mamet in which she plays Margaret Ford, a psychiatrist who is intrigued by the art of the con.[ "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."][Clements, Warren. "A Master in the Art of the Con." The Globe and Mail. August 31, 2007] Crouse was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1984 movie Places in the Heart. She appeared as Lily Braden, the discontented wife of hockey player Ned Braden, in the comedy classic Slap Shot.