After a brief career as a wine-shop clerk, 20-year-old British actor Ernest Cossart made his first stage appearance in 1896. Cossart toured the provinces in stock, then in 1908 settled permanently in the U.S. He made a smattering of silent-film appearances, notably the 1916 serial The Strange Case of Mary Page, but would not turn to movies full-time until 1935. Along with such countrymen as Arthur Treacher, Charles Coleman, and Wilson Benge, Cossart became one of Hollywood's favorite butlers, bearing such character names as Bims, Brewster, Walton, Brassett, Syrette, Sidney, and Jeepers in such films as The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Three Smart Girls (1936), Never Say Die (1939), Charley's Aunt (1941), and Cluny Brown (1946). On occasion, he'd forego his waistcoats, striped trousers, and "veddy good, sir"s to play a twinkly eyed working stiff like Pop in Kitty Foyle (1940) and Monaghan in Kings Row (1942). He was also seen as a cleric or two, notably Father McGee in The Jolson Story (1946). Ernest Cossart retired in 1949, two years before his death at the age of 74.
by Hal Erickson
biography
