Holst’s brother was a star of silver screen
EMIL Von Holst may not have the same enduring fame as his younger brother Gustav Holst, composer of The Planets Suite, but he had his time in the spotlight.
Cheltenham-born Emil (1876-1951) found fame and fortune as an actor, under the stage name of Ernest Cossart, appearing in 40 Hollywood movies alongside the biggest stars of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.
After a brief spell as a clerk in a wine shop, Cossart moved from Cheltenham to London and appeared in his first theatre production at the age of 20.
He was a contemporary of the actress Lillah Mccarthy (1875-1960), one of the foremost stage names of her time on both sides of the Atlantic, who married Harley Granville-barker, esteemed thespian and proprietor of the Royal Court Theatre, London.
It’s possible Mccarthy helped her fellow Cheltonian climb the career ladder as the two appeared together in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Wallack Theatre, New York in 1915. Cossart played Bottom.
The following year Cossart had parts in a couple of silent movies.
When the US entered the First World War in 1917, Cossart joined the Cana- dian Army, saw service in France and was injured.
He did not appear in another film until 1935 but from then on, moviemaking occupied Cossart full time.
He played character parts, making the role of the quintessentially English butler (despite the fact that he was halfswedish), with names such as Bims, Brewster, Walton, Brassett, Sidney and Jeepers his speciality.
He never made top billing, but he appeared in some blockbuster films.
His credits include The Scoundrel (1935) starring Noel Coward, The Jolson Story (1940) starring Al Jolson, The Tower of London (1939) starring Basil Rathbone, Kitty Foyle (1940) starring Ginger Rogers and John Loves Mary (1949) with Ronald Reagan.
Never out of work, he made his final acting appearance in a US TV series called Laburnum Grove in 1950 before he died in New York at the age of 74 in 1951.
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The poet and writer William Ernest Henley was born at 2 Eastgate Street, Gloucester in August 1849.
Largely forgotten today – bar his best-known poem Invictus – he was a prominent literary figure in Victorian times and was the person Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson based Long John Silver on in Treasure Island.
The son of a city bookseller, Henley attended The Crypt School.
At the age of 12 he suffered TB with the result he had to have a foot amputated and was sent to Edinburgh for medical treatment.
While there he met and became friends with Stevenson.
When Henley ledited a number of literary journals he commissioned Stevenson - along with other up and coming writers such as JM Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, HG Wells and WB Yeats - to write for him.
Henley and Stevenson wrote four plays together and influenced one another’s work.
Stevenson said he took the idea for the villainous swashbuckling character Long John Silver from his Gloucestrian chum.
W S Henley was the poet and writer’s brother.
He rose to celebrity on the London stage and was the foremost comic actor of his time, though not by choice.
At the home of his friend of Jerome K Jerome, WS Henley once bemoaned the fact nobody took him seriously.
“If I’m out to dinner and I ask a man to pass the mustard, he slaps his leg and bursts out laughing” he told the author of Three Men in A Boat.
Henley appeared in a play written for him by Jerome K Jerome and Eden Phillpotts.
The latter’s most successful stage work was Yellow Sands, which opened in 1925 at the Haymarket Theatre.
Among the cast, making his debut in London, was Cheltenham-born Ralph Richardson.
Stan Stennett MBE was the director of the Roses in Tewkesbury from 1980 to 1993.
The Cardiff born actor/musician/ comedian/impresario explored just about every avenue of showbiz and played regular roles in such long running TV soaps as Casualty, Crossroads and Coronation Street, plus the 2007 TV adaptation of The History of Mr
Polly, starring Lee Evans.
Despite all his achievements, Stan Stennett will probably go down in history as the last person to appear on stage with Eric Morecambe.
Stan Stennett’s son Roger is also a man of many parts.
A former British high jump champion and martial arts black belt, Roger Stennett is a writer of books, plays, TV scripts and musicals.
He has the distinction of being the only writer to be under contract to the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Sooty Show at the same time.