Ernest Cossart

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Ernest Cossart (born September 24, 1876 in Cheltenham , Gloucestershire as Emil Gottfried von Holst , † January 21, 1951 in New York City , USA ) was a British actor.

life and career

Ernest Cossart was born in Cheltenham under the name Emil Gottfried von Holst as the son of the musician Adolph von Holst (1846-1901) and his wife Clara (1841-1882). On the paternal side, the family was of Baltic German and Latvian - Swedish origin. His brother, two years older than him, was the famous composer Gustav Holst . After initially working in a wine shop, Cossart made his stage debut in 1896. In 1908 he moved to the United States, where he appeared in numerous Broadway productions in the following decades . However, he also returned several times to the West End of London for roles. He played in the world premieres of George Bernard Shaw's Too True to Be Good (1932) and Maxwell Anderson's Mary of Scotland (1933).

During World War I , Cossart fought in the Canadian Army and was badly wounded.

In 1916 he made a few appearances in silent films , but it was not until almost twenty years later that he returned to the film business. In 1935 he made his sound film debut in the comedy A Charming Villain at the side of Noël Coward . The gray-haired, dignified-looking Cossart subsequently developed into a popular supporting actor who was used particularly frequently as a British butler - for example in the Ernst Lubitsch films Engel (1937) alongside Marlene Dietrich and Herbert Marshall and Cluny Brown Free Feet (1946) with Jennifer Jones and Charles Boyer . Occasionally, however, he also played the father of the leading actress, for example of Ginger Rogers in her Oscar-winning role in Miss Kitty (1940) and of Ann Sheridan in Kings Row (1942). He was seen several times in clerical garb, for example as bishop in love letters (1945) alongside Joseph Cotten .

In total, Cossart played in over 40 films by 1949. He last appeared as an actor on emerging television in 1950: he had guest roles in two episodes of the Ford Theater Hour . Ernest Cossart died in New York City in January 1951 at the age of 74. He left behind his wife Maude Davies, to whom he had been married since 1906. Their daughter was the actress Valerie Cossart (1907-1994).

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernest Cossart at Allmovie
  2. Valerie Cossart in the Internet Movie Database (English)