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Crouse was born in New York City, the daughter of Anna (née 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."[

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 sees 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

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 li