Thursday, August 29, 2024

Gustav Holst had a brother who was a Hollywood actor

In a Liberal England first, our Trivial Fact of the Day comes from Bluesky. Many thanks to Joanna Wyld over there. (You can find me on Bluesky too: @lordbonkers.bsky.social.)

The composer Gustav Holst was born Gustavus Theodore von Holst in Cheltenham in 1874. He had a younger brother, Emil Gottfried, who enjoyed success as an actor in the West End, New York and Hollywood under the name Ernest Cossart.

His greatest hour in London came when he appeared in the world premiere of Bernard Shaw's Too True to Be Good.

In films, where he found regular employment in the 1930s without becoming a star, he tended to play English butlers or Irish priests. You can see him in King's Row with Ronald Reagan, the 1940 American version of Tom Brown's Schooldays (not to be confused with the 1951 British version with John Howard Davies) and The Jolson Story.

Play the video above (staying on this site rather than going to YouTube) and you will see him in this last film as Father McGee.

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