Composer Gustav Holst, best known for his symphonic suite “The Planets,” was not the only celebrity in the family. His younger brother, Emil, was an actor on stage and screen.
Both were born “von Holst.” Their father was of Swedish, Latvian, and German descent. Their great-grandfather had also been a composer, who taught harp at the Imperial Russian Court in St. Petersburg. Continuing in the family trade, their grandfather set up shop in England. In doing so, he added the “von,” thinking a little gravitas might help to drum up business. Sensibly, Gustav dropped the prefix with the outbreak of war with Germany in 1914. Emil took the stage name Ernest Cossart in 1896.
In Hollywood, Cossart was often typecast as butlers. Twice, he played a priest. He also played Pa Monahan in “Kings Row” (1942), with Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan, and Squire Brown in “Tom Brown’s School Days” (1940). You may also remember him as Ginger Rogers’ irascible father in “Kitty Foyle” (1940).
Here he is with the great character Edward Everett Horton in the Ernst Lubitsch’s “Angel” (1937).
During World War II, Cossart joined Cedric Hardwicke, Basil Rathbone, and others in establishing a fund to help British artists in distress.
The gentleman who hands off his hat and coat is Herbert Marshall, who starred in Lubitsch’s “Trouble in Paradise” (1932). A distant relative of Mary Shelley, Marshall lost a leg in the First World War after he was shot in the knee while serving on the Western Front. Determined to get back to the stage, he learned to walk with a prosthetic limb. This being a music page, you might be interested to know he played a blind composer in the film “The Enchanted Cottage” (1945), with Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire. His real-life handicap proved immaterial to the ladies, who were crazy about him. During the Second World War, he visited military hospitals to instill hope and give practical advise to those who were maimed during the conflict.
As a boy, Cossart (then still Emil von Holst) used to troll his brother by surreptitiously setting back the hands of the clock, prolonging Gustav’s dreaded violin practice. This did nothing to endear the instrument to the future composer. Gustav picked up the trombone at the age of 12.
Cossart died in New York City in 1951. He was 74 years old. Gustav died in 1934 at 59.
Here’s a candid photo of Cossart, left, with his niece, Imogen Holst, composer, conductor, and assistant to Benjamin Britten, and on the right, his brother, the famous composer Gustav Holst, whose birthday it is today.