Lindsay Crouse

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Lindsay Crouse

Lindsay Crouse is well known for her starring role in 1987 in House of Games.
Born May 12, 1948 (1948-05-12) (age 60)
New York City

Lindsay Ann Crouse (born May 12, 1948) is an American actress.

Contents

[edit] Crouse's Theatrical Family

Crouse was born in New York City, the daughter of Anna Erskine and Russel Crouse, a playwright.[1] 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. [2] 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.[3] "At any hour, somebody's typewriter was going."[3]

[edit] Crouse's Marriage with David Mamet

Crouse married another playwright, David Mamet, in 1977.[4] Crouse caught Mamet's eye in the hockey classic Slap Shot.[4] 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."[4] 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."[4]

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."[5] Lahr also writes that Mamet got his first screenwriting assignment through Crouse.[5] Crouse was on her way to audition for Bob Rafelson's 1981 remake of The Postman always Rings Twice.[5] Mamet told Crouse to tell Rafelson that "he was a fool if he didn't hire me to write the screenplay."[5] Although Mamet was joking, Crouse did it and Rafelson called Mamet and asked Mamet why he should hire him for the screenplay.[5] "Because I'll give you a good screenplay or a sincere apology," said Mamet.[5] Mamet got the job.[5]

John Lahr writes in his book Show and Tell: New Yorker Profiles that when Crouse and Mamet were together, Crouse was essential to Mamet.[5] "She says herself as a creative partner, and in some ways she probably was," says Shiela Welch.[5] "David wasn't very smooth socially. Lindsay had social graces. David learned how to present himself in the theatre world from her."[5]

Crouse and Mamet have two daughters Willa and Zosia.[6] Crouse and Mamet divorced in 1990.[6]

[edit] Acting career

After graduating from Radcliffe in 1970,[3] 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.[1] She is 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.[7] "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."[7] Crouse was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the 1984 movie Places in the Heart. Crouse is also known for role in the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where she was a recurring supporting cast member playing Professor Maggie Walsh. She is also notable for playing Lily Braden, the discontented wife of hockey player Ned Braden, in the comedy classic Slap Shot.

In recent years Crouse wishes she could make more movies but has concentrated on the theater.[8] "Once you get your driver's license, you end your film career," says Crouse.[8] "Look at my generation. Great actresses like Glenn Close and Susan Sarandon -- there's nothing written for anyone over a certain age."[8] In 2007 Crouse opened a one woman show, The Belle of Amherst, about the life of Emily Dickinson at the Gloucester Stage in Gloucester, Massachusetts.[9] "You can't stop and recite something," says Crouse.[9] "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.[9]

Crouse will appear in "Going to St. Ives" by Lee Blessing with the Gloucester Stage Company from July 17 to August 3, 2008.[10]

[edit] Buddhist Beliefs

Crouse is a Buddhist and since 2005 has organized an annual Buddhist educational program at a retreat at Windhover in Rockport, Massachusetts. [11] "[Buddhism] is not an exclusive club. It has something to offer everyone at all levels," says Crouse.[12] "Buddhism is dynamic and has captured the interests of Americans. Even our quantum physics validate ideas the Buddha taught 2,500 years ago.[12]

The Gloucester Daily Times reported on January 10, 2008 that Lindsay Crouse had brought Buddhist monk the Venerable Lama Marut to the Rockport Community House.[13] "It is truly rare in this country to encounter authentic Buddhist courses for Americans that are so clear," said Crouse.[13] Crouse said that Marut will speak on the subject of emptiness.[13] "For me this is one of the most exciting teachings in all of Buddhism because it opens up a vista of possibilities," said Crouse.[13] "It means that our definitions of our self - including ugly, stupid, victimized, depressed, bad at math etc. - don't exist permanently. They're just ideas, or concepts in our minds. And through meditation and practice the mind can change."[13]

[edit] Personal Life

Crouse and Mamet have two daughters Willa and Zosia.[6] Crouse and Mamet divorced in 1990.[6] Crouse is presently married to Rick Blue,[14] a television director and editor.[14]

Crouse's brother is Timothy Crouse, author of The Boys on the Bus about political journalism during the 1972 presidential campaign.[15] Timothy Crouse also co-authored a new libretto for the musical Anything Goes with John Weidman that opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre on Broadway on October 19, 1987, and ran for 784 performances.[15]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ a b Film Reference. "Lindsay Crouse Biography (1948-)."
  2. ^ Boston Globe. "Crouse plays the belle" by Wendy Killeen. July 22, 2007
  3. ^ a b c New York Times. "Lindsay Crouse keeps up a Family Stage Tradition." January 2, 1981.
  4. ^ a b c d New York Times. "For Mamet and Crouse, A Movie is a Family Affair." October 11, 1987.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Show and Tell: New Yorker Profiles by John Lahr. Published in 200 by University of California Press.
  6. ^ a b c d Theatre Database. "David Mamet (1947-)"
  7. ^ a b The Globe and Mail. "A Master in the Art of the Con" by Warren Clements. August 31, 2007
  8. ^ a b c Boston Globe. "Crouse: No complaints" by Carol Beggy & Mark Shanahan. July 20, 2007.
  9. ^ a b c Innews Weekly "The 'belle' of Gloucester." July 25, 2007.
  10. ^ Glouster Times. "Gloucester Stage Company plans five plays, Sunday readings for 29th season" by Jeff Pope. April 18, 2008.
  11. ^ Glouster Daily Times. "Actress brings third annual Buddhist retreat to Rockport" by Gail McCarthy. July 23, 2007.
  12. ^ a b Glouster Daily Times. "Actress brings Buddhist retreat to Windhover" by Gail McCarthy. August 25, 2005.
  13. ^ a b c d e Gloucester Daily Times. "Buddhist monk teaches courses in Rockport next week" by Fail McCarthy. January 10, 2008.
  14. ^ a b >Babylon Beacon "Heard It On The Grapevine" by Frick and Frack. September 13, 2007.
  15. ^ a b Mediabistro.com "Q&A: Timothy Crouse" by Greg Bloom. November 2, 2004.

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Crouse, Lindsay
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actor
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH