Ernest Cossart

Cossart was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the younger of the two children of Adolph von Holst (1846–1901), a professional musician, and his first wife, Clara (née Lediard; 1841–1882).Matthews, Colin. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/13252 "Holst, Gustav"], Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 19 March 2013 {{subscription required}}

The elder child, Gustavus, later known as Gustav Holst, became a leading English composer. Emil attended Cheltenham Grammar School and Dean Close School, and then became a clerk in a wine company's office.{{Cite web |date=2020-11-29 |title=Noteworthy Alumni {{!}} Dean Close School |url=https://www.deanclose.org.uk/ods/od-news/noteworthy-alumni/ |access-date=2024-12-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129044648/https://www.deanclose.org.uk/ods/od-news/noteworthy-alumni/ |archive-date=29 November 2020 }} When he decided to pursue an acting career, he took the stage name Ernest Cossart, appearing on stage in Britain before moving to the US in 1908, working in Broadway productions and all over the country.[http://www.holstmuseum.org.uk/aboutholst-ernest-cossart.htm "Emil von Holst (Ernest Cossart)"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203032304/http://www.holstmuseum.org.uk/aboutholst-ernest-cossart.htm |date=3 December 2013 }}, Holst Birthplace Museum. Retrieved 20 March 2013 During the First World War, he served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and was severely wounded.Short, p. 476 After the war, he appeared in musical comedy in the West End before returning to Broadway in 1919.

In the late 1920s, Cossart made a return to the London stage, acting with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in a West End transfer of a Broadway success, Caprice."The Theatres", The Times, 16 May 1929, p. 14 In 1932, he appeared as Colonel Tallboys in the world premiere of Bernard Shaw's Too True to Be Good, with Beatrice Lillie and Leo G. Carroll.Atkinson, Brooks. [https://www.nytimes.com/1932/04/05/archives/over-the-coffee-cups-with-george-bernard-shaw-in-a-play-entitled-to.html "Over the Coffee Cups"], The New York Times, 5 April 1932 {{subscription required}}

Cossart moved into acting in Hollywood films in the 1930s. He was often typecast as butlers;Asper, H G. [https://www.proquest.com/docview/2189678 "Three smart guys"], Film History, 11(2) (1999), pp. 134–53 {{subscription required}} The New York Times said of him:{{quote|Butlers, the supreme gift of the British Empire to Hollywood and mystery fiction, are the specialty of Ernest Cossart. You have seen him buttling with frozen gravity and punctilio of bedtick vest in "Two for Tonight" and "Accent on Youth," and you will now see him as the correct gentleman's gentleman in "Angel," which Ernst Lubitsch has made with Marlene Dietrich and Herbert Marshall.Jones, Idwall. [https://www.nytimes.com/1937/11/07/archives/buttling-a-way-to-fame.html "Buttling a Way to Fame"], The New York Times, 7 November 1937 {{subscription required}}|}}

In Angel, Cossart and Edward Everett Horton as the servants were judged to have had the best of the film."Angel", The Manchester Guardian, 15 February 1938, p. 13 In addition to such roles, Cossart played a range of different characters, appearing as Pa Monaghan with Ronald Reagan in Kings Row,Tibbetts, John C [https://www.proquest.com/docview/918012985 "Film Reviews"], Film & History, 41(2) (2011), pp. 84–85{{subscription required}} and as Squire Brown in Tom Brown's School Days.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120715163957/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba3adfc49 "Ernest Cossart"], British Film Institute; retrieved 20 March 2013. In two films, he played Roman Catholic priests, one French and the other Irish-American.

During the Second World War, Cossart was a co-founder, with Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Basil Rathbone, and other expatriate actors, of a fund to help artists in distress in Britain."Help for Distressed Actors", The Times, 28 December 1939, p. 4

Cossart died in New York at the age of 74, survived by his wife, the actress Maude Davis, and their daughter, the actress Valerie Cossart (1907–1994).[https://web.archive.org/web/20150620120225/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2bb3e83bf6 "Valerie Cossart"], British Film Institute. Retrieved 20 March 2013"Deaths", The Times, 24 January 1951, p. 1

• Mary of Scotland (1933) as Lord Throgmorton

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• The Strange Case of Mary Page (1916)
• The Scoundrel (1935) – Jimmy Clay
• Two for Tonight (1935) – Homps
• The Great Ziegfeld (1936) – Sidney
• Desire (1936) – Aristide Duvalle
• Palm Springs (1936) – Starkey
• Murder with Pictures (1936) – Stanley Redfield
• Three Smart Girls (1936) – Binns
• Champagne Waltz (1937) – Waiter
• As Good as Married (1937) – Quinn
• Angel (1937) – Wilton
• Bringing Up Baby (1938) – Joe
• Letter of Introduction (1938) – Andrews
• Zaza (1938) – Marchand
• Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) – Binns

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• Never Say Die (1939) – Jeepers
• The Magnificent Fraud (1939) – Duval
• Lady of the Tropics (1939) – Father Antoine
• Tower of London (1939) – Tom Clink
• The Light That Failed (1939) – Beeton
• A Bill of Divorcement (1940) – Rev. Dr. Pumphrey
• Tom Brown's School Days (1940) – Squire Brown
• Kitty Foyle (1940) – Thomas Foyle
• Skylark (1941) – Theodore
• Kings Row (1942) – Pop Monaghan
• Tonight and Every Night (1944) – Sam Royce
• The Girl of the Limberlost (1945)
• Cluny Brown (1946) – Syrett
• The Jolson Story (1946) – Father McGee
• Angel Street (1950) – Manningham

::Source: British Film Institute

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• {{cite book | last= Short | first= Michael | year= 1990| title= Gustav Holst: The Man and his Music| location= Oxford | publisher= Oxford University Press | isbn=019314154X}}

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Category:1876 births

Category:1951 deaths

Category:20th-century English male actors

Category:English people of German descent

Category:English people of Latvian descent

Category:English male film actors

Category:Male actors from Cheltenham

Category:People educated at Dean Close School

Category:English expatriate male actors in the United States

Category:Canadian military personnel of World War I