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A grand-niece of legendary songwriter Stephen Foster, Henrietta Crosman became a major theatrical star in the latter part of the 19th century under the management of David Belasco and Charles Frohman. Widely acclaimed for her Shakespearean roles (her favorite was Rosalind in As You Like It), Crossman was one of the scores of stage luminaries brought to films in 1914 by Famous Players. She starred as The Unwelcome Mrs. Hatch (1914) opposite Harold Lockwood and accepted a couple of other screen assignments, but her film career did not get into high gear until after the changeover to sound. A rather grand supporting player in such films as The Royal Family of Broadway (1930) (one reviewer called her performance as the show business matriarch "incisive"), she was equally convincing as the embittered, downtrodden mother in John Ford's Pilgrimage (1933). There were several other stand-out performances to come (including the aged actress in The Curtain Falls [1934]) but she returned to the legitimate stage in 1939. Crosman was married to her longtime manager, Maurice Campbell.