Early life

Crouse was born in New York City, the daughter of Anna (née Erskine; 1916-2014) and Russel Crouse, a playwright. Her maternal grandparents were Pauline (Ives) and author and educator John Erskine. Her full name—Lindsay Ann Crouse—is an intentional tribute to the Broadway writing partnership of Lindsay and Crouse, which consisted of her father and his writing partner, Howard Lindsay. The two wrote much of The Sound of Music. 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."

Acting career

After graduating from Radcliffe College 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.

Crouse's film career began in 1976, with small roles in television and theatrical movies. In 1977, she appeared as Lily Braden, the discontented wife of hockey player Ned Braden in Slap Shot. Crouse was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1984 movie Places in the Heart. Among her films was a starring role in House of Games, the 1987 film directed and written by her then-husband David 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."

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 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, where she was a recurring supporting cast member playing Professor Maggie Walsh. Crouse has also guest-starred on Alias, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Columbo, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, ER, Millennium, and NYPD Blue.

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, a one-woman show about the life of poet Emily Dickinson, at the Gloucester Stage in Gloucester, Massachusetts. "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 Mamet in 1977. Crouse caught Mamet's eye in the hockey comedy 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." When the two did indeed wed, 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."

John Lahr writes in his book Show and Tell: New Yorker Profiles that when Mamet married Crouse in 1977, 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's 1981 remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice 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.

Crouse's brother is Timothy Crouse, author of The Boys on the Bus about political journalism during the 1972 presidential campaign. Timothy Crouse also co-authored a new libretto for the musical Anything Goes with John Weidman that opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on Broadway on October 19, 1987, and ran for 784 performances.

Buddhist beliefs

Crouse is a Buddhist and a direct student of Sumati Marut. In 2005, she organized an annual Buddhist educational program, originally held at the Windhover Center for the Performing Arts in Rockport, Massachusetts, and then in 2010 moved to The Governor's Academy in Byfield, Massachusetts. " 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 ideas the Buddha taught 2,500 years ago."

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	All the President's Men	Kay Eddy
1977	Slap Shot	Lily Braden
1977	Between the Lines	Abbie
1981	Prince of the City	Carla Ciello
1982	Verdict, TheThe Verdict	Kaitlin Costello
1983	Krull	Princess Lyssa (voice)
1983	Daniel	Rochelle Isaacson
1984	Iceman	Dr. Diane Brady
1984	Places in the Heart	Margaret Lomax
1987	House of Games	Margaret Ford
1989	Brave Irene	Narrator (voice)	Short film
1989	Communion	Anne Strieber
1990	Desperate Hours	Brenda Chandler
1994	Being Human	Janet
1995	Bye Bye Love	Grace Damico
1995	Indian in the Cupboard, TheThe Indian in the Cupboard	Jane
1996	Juror, TheThe Juror	Tallow
1996	Arrival, TheThe Arrival	Ilana Green
1997	Prefontaine	Elfriede Prefontaine
1998	Progeny	Dr. Susan Lamarche
1999	Stranger in My House	Patti Young
1999	Insider, TheThe Insider	Sharon Tiller
2000	One Hell of a Guy	Judge Davis
2001	Almost Salinas	Allie
2001	Impostor	Chancellor
2002	Cherish	Therapist
2007	Mr. Brooks	Captain Lister
2013	Somewhere Slow	Katherine Franklin

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1976	Eleanor and Franklin	Marjorie Bennett	TV film
1976	Tenth Level, TheThe Tenth Level	Karen	TV film
1977	Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years		TV film
1980	Paul's Case	First Actress	TV film
1981	Summer Solstice	Maggie	TV film
1982	Kennedy's Children	Rona	TV film
1985	ABC Afterschool Special	Louise Sanders	Episode: "I Want to Go Home"
1986-1987	Hill Street Blues	Kate McBride	Recurring role (5 episodes)
1987	Equalizer, TheThe Equalizer	Sarah McGee	Episode: "Solo"
1988	American Playhouse	Ronnie	Episode: "Lemon Sky"
1989	Columbo	Dr. Joan Allenby	Episode: Sex and the Married Detective
1989	CBS Summer Playhouse	Annie Holscher	Episode: "American Nuclear"
1990	Everyday Heroes	Janet Florine	TV film
1990	Lifestories	Rebecca McManus	Episode: "Rebecca McManus and Steve Arnold"
1990	L.A. Law	Sharon Cummings	Episode: "Outward Bound"
1992	Batman: The Animated Series	Mrs. Grant (voice)	Episode: "I've Got Batman in My Basement"
1993	Murder, She Wrote	Louise Anderson-Crowe	Episode: "Killer Radio"
1993	Civil Wars	Dianne Ralston	Episodes: "Captain Kangaroo Court", "A Liver Runs Through It"
1993	Chantilly Lace	Rheza	TV film
1993	Final Appeal	Dana Cartier	TV film
1993	Law & Order	Diane Meade	Episode: "Promises to Keep"
1993	Halloween Tree, TheThe Halloween Tree	Additional Voices	TV film
1994	Out of Darkness	Kim Donaldson	TV film
1994	Traps	Laura Parkhurst	Recurring role (5 episodes)
1994	L.A. Law	Sharon Cummings	Episode: "Finish Line"
1994	Parallel Lives	Una Pace	TV film
1995	CBS Schoolbreak Special	Anna Leone	Episode: "Between Mother and Daughter"
1996	ER	Dr. Anna Castiglioni	Episode: "Baby Shower"
1996	Norma Jean & Marilyn	Natasha Lytess	TV film
1996	If These Walls Could Talk	Frances White	Segment, "1996"
1996	Millennium	Ardis Cohen	Episode: "Kingdom Come"
1996	NYPD Blue	Jane Wallace	Episode: "Ted and Carey's Bogus Adventure"
1997	NYPD Blue	Jane Wallace	Episode: "Alice Doesn't Fit Here Anymore"
1998	Brimstone	Dr. Julia Martin	Episode: "Heat"
1999	Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder	Caroline Ingalls	TV film
1999	Outer Limits, TheThe Outer Limits	Gwen Sawyer	Episode: "Tribunal"
1999	Touched by an Angel	Kate	Episode: "Such a Time as This"
1999	Law & Order	Judge Denise Grobman	Episode: "DNR"
1999-2000	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Prof. Maggie Walsh	Recurring role (9 episodes)
2001	Warden, TheThe Warden	Maureen Redmond	TV film
2001	Providence	Lauren MacKenzie	Episodes: "The Honeymoon's Over", "Rocky Road"
2002	Providence	Lauren MacKenzie	Episodes: "The Start of Something Big", "All the King's Men"
2002	Frasier	Peg	Episodes: "Juvenilia", "The Proposal"
2002	Division, TheThe Division	Donna B. / Julie M.	Episode: "Forgive Me, Father"
2002	Alias	Dr. Carson Evans	Episode: "The Prophecy"
2002	Beyond the Prairie, Part 2: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder	Caroline Ingalls	TV film
2002	Arliss	Sharon 'Sydney' Perelli	Episode: "The Immortal"
2003	Hack	Beth Kulvicki	Episodes: "Forgive, But Don't Forget", "Black Eye", "Sinners and Saints", "All Others Pay Cash"
2003	Dragnet	Capt. Ruth Hagermann	Recurring role (6 episodes)
2004	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Dr. Mona Lavelle	Episode: "Ch-Ch-Changes"
2005	Law & Order	Judge Deirdre Hellstrom	Episode: "Red Ball"
2005	Criminal Minds	Mary Mays	Episode: "Blood Hungry"
2007	Drive	The Boss	Episode: "Rearview"
2009-2011	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Judge Andrews	Recurring role (7 episodes)
2010	FlashForward	Mrs. Kirby	Episodes: "Revelation Zero: Parts 1 & 2"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]