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). The elder child, Gustavus, later known as
Gustav Holst, became a leading English composer. 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. During the First World War, he served in the
Canadian Expeditionary Force and was severely wounded. After the war, he appeared in musical comedy in the
West End before returning to Broadway in 1919. 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. Cossart moved into acting in Hollywood films in the 1930s. He was often typecast as butlers;
The New York Times said of him: In
Angel, Cossart and
Edward Everett Horton as the servants were judged to have had the best of the film. In addition to such roles, Cossart played a range of different characters, appearing as Pa Monaghan with
Ronald Reagan in
Kings Row, and as Squire Brown in ''
Tom Brown's School Days''. In two films, he played Roman Catholic priests, one French and the other Irish-American. 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). ==Broadway roles==