Randolph Mantooth

Randolph Mantooth
Born	(1945-09-19) September 19, 1945 Sacramento, California, U.S.
Other names	Randy Mantooth
Alma mater	American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Occupation	Actor, Writer, Speaker
Years active	Late 1960s-present
Spouse(s)	Rose Parra (m. 1978–91) Kristen Connors (m. 2002)[1]
Website
randolphmantooth.com

Randolph Mantooth (born September 19, 1945), is an American actor who has worked in television, documentaries, theater, and film for more than 40 years. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he was discovered in New York by a Universal Studios talent agent while performing the lead in the play Philadelphia, Here I Come. After signing with Universal and moving to California, he slowly built up his resume with work on such dramatic series as Adam-12 (1968), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), McCloud (1970), and Alias Smith and Jones (1971).

He was chosen to play a lead role as Fireman/Paramedic John Gage in the 1970s medical drama, Emergency!, a show that enjoyed six seasons (129 episodes) and seven two-hour television movie specials. Since this experience, Mantooth has spoken regularly at Firefighter and EMS conferences and symposiums across the United States, while maintaining an active acting career. He is a spokesperson for both the International Association of Firefighters [IAFF] and the International Association of Fire Chiefs [IAFC] for fire fighter health and safety, and he has been honored over the years with numerous awards and recognitions.

Mantooth has appeared in numerous films and television series in lead and supportive roles including mini-series adaptations of Testimony of Two Men (1977) and a starring role as Abraham Kent in The Seekers (1979–80). Through the 1990s and 2000s he explored a new direction in his career with daytime soap operas, earning him four Soap Opera Digest Award nominations. He has frequently returned to his theater roots in such productions as "Footprints in Blood", "Back to the Blankets", "Wink Dah", "The Independence of Eddie Rose", "The Paper Crown", "The Inuit" and "Rain Dance", among others.

History

Mantooth, the oldest of four children, was born as Randolph Mantooth in Sacramento, California, in 1945,^[2] to Sadie and Donald (Buck) Mantooth. He is of Seminole and German descent.^[3] His siblings are Don Mantooth, Nancy Mantooth and Tonya Mantooth.

Because of their father's job in the construction industry, Mantooth lived in 24 states, finally settling in Santa Barbara, California, where he grew up. He attended San Marcos High School and participated in school plays. Following his studies at Santa Barbara City College, he received a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York .^[2] His performance as "Gar" in the play Philadelphia Here I Come earned him the Charles Jehlenger Award for Best Actor, an honor he shared with fellow actor Brad Davis.^[4]

One of his earlier jobs was as an elevator operator at the Madison Ave. Baptist Church and as a page at NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. His very first paying job in life was as a newspaper boy for the local paper, the Coatesville Record, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.^[5]

On April 2, 2013, Mantooth had lost his mother, Sadie Mantooth, at age 90, at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. The Los Angeles County Fire Museum had received a special donation from him to dedicate the memory of his mother.^[6]

Career

Early work (1970s)

Mantooth was discovered in New York by Universal Studios’ talent agent Eleanor Kilgallen while playing the lead in the play Philadelphia Here I Come.^[4] After signing with Universal and moving back to California, he slowly built up his resume with work on such dramatic series as Adam-12 (1968), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), McCloud (1970), and Alias Smith and Jones (1971).^[2] This led to TV stardom on the popular Emergency! series in 1972 which ran over six seasons.^[2] He earned further series roles as Lt. Mike Bender on Operation Petticoat (1977) and as Eddie Dawkins on Detective School (1979), as well as guest starring on episodics such as Sierra, Cos,The Love Boat, Battlestar Gallactica, and Vega$.

Emergency! (1972–1979)

Producer Robert A. Cinader saw Mantooth in a small role on The Bold Ones opposite Hal Holbrook that led to his decision to cast him as Firefighter/Paramedic John Gage on the long-running TV series, Emergency!. He and actor Kevin Tighe as Firefighter/Paramedic Roy DeSoto were part of a paramedic team assigned to Squad 51 of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.^[4] Responding to accidents or dangerous rescues in an “emergency room on wheels” with directions via biophone from medical personnel back at the hospital, the paramedics performed Advance Lifesaving (ALS) techniques to stabilize injured, ill, and dying patients before transporting them to a medical facility.^[4]

To train for their parts, the actors, Mantooth along with Kevin Tighe, "...sat in on paramedic classes" (although they never took any written exams) "and rode out on extensive ride-a-longs with LACoFD".^[3] In an interview with Tom Blixa of WTVN, Mantooth said that the producer wanted them to train so that they would at least know the fundamentals and look like they knew what they were doing on camera. Mantooth mentioned that unless you take the written course you are not a paramedic and that "if anyone has a heart attack, I'll call 911 with the best of them".^[7]

According to authors Richard Yokley and Roxane Sutherland who wrote the book, Emergency! Behind the Scenes, the show Emergency! is an important chapter in television history.^[8] When the world premiere was first broadcast in 1972, there were only 12 paramedic units in all of North America. Ten years later, more than half of all Americans were within ten minutes of a paramedic rescue or ambulance unit, due to the influence of the show. The program introduced audiences from all over the world to the concept of pre-hospital care, along with fire prevention and CPR.^[8]

The show ran six seasons (129 episodes) with seven two-hour television movie specials including the pilot film (The Wedsworth-Townsend Act).^[4] with a national audience that averaged 30 million viewers each week.^[4] Mantooth directed two episodes of Emergency!; "The Nuisance" (1976) and "Insanity Epidemic" (1977), and also directed the movie Greatest Rescues of Emergency (1978)

Nearly 30 years after Emergency! debuted, the Smithsonian Institute accepted Emergency! memorabilia into its Natural History Museum.^[9] including their helmets, turnouts, biophone, and defibrillator.^[10]

The onscreen camaraderie between Mantooth and Tighe, as well as with actor-singers Julie London and Bobby Troup, who played Nurse Dixie McCall and Dr. Joe Early respectively, carried over to real life as well. All four remained close friends long after the series came to a close, and Tighe served as a best man at Mantooth's second wedding in 2002.^[11] While talking with Tom Blixa of WTVN, Mantooth said that at first it was a little intimidating working with Robert Fuller, Bobby Troup, and Julie London, because they were all big stars but after doing a show with them for seven years they all became like family.^[7] In the same interview while discussing happenings behind the scenes and blooper reels, Mantooth also said that there was "a lot of salty language though"..."and we learned every bad word from Julie London"...”I love her to death but she herself said 'I'm a broad'".^[7] In a 2013 interview with the Tolucan Times, Mantooth said "Julie London was a mentor to all of us. She let the words work for her, rather than emoting; that’s all anybody needed."^[10]

The series was sold into syndication on TV Land, RTV and MeTV. Emergency! spun off an animated version called Emergency +4 which ran on NBC Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1976, of which Mantooth's voice was used.

Firefighter/EMS advocate and spokesperson

While Mantooth has been a working actor for forty years, he has remained an advocate of firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, and other emergency medical providers. He makes speeches and personal appearances each year at events across the country, discussing the "inside story of the development of the television series Emergency! and its impact on the EMS system development".^[12] Having worked closely with the nation’s first certified firefighter/paramedics, who served as technical advisors on the set of Emergency!, Mantooth brings a perspective and insight into the startup and history of pre-hospital treatment in the field. He worked alongside influential men who made a difference … men he greatly admired … the late Robert A. Cinader, creator and executive producer of Emergency!, and the man known as the Father of Modern Emergency Medical Services, close friend and mentor, the late James O. Page.^[13] According to A.J. Heightman, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS), "Randy Mantooth is one of the strongest reminders of how America turned the dedicated delivery of basic emergency care into a systematic approach to EMS and Advanced Life Support".^[12]

Mantooth serves as honorary chairman and spokesperson for the non-profit County of Los Angeles Fire Museum Association.^[14] He also serves as spokesperson for the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) on Health and Safety. He has been honored over the years with numerous awards and recognitions, most recently the James O. Page Award of Excellence from the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), EMS section. He is a lifetime member of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) and a lifetime member of the Washington DC-based Advocates for EMS.^[15] He "accepts the accolades with gracious deference to those he considers our true heroes".^[13]

Mantooth served as moderator recently in a project done in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Fire Museum, Pioneers of Paramedicine,^[16] is an effort to document and record the history of the paramedicine program. Originally filmed in 2001, with additional scenes filmed in 2013, features discussions with four doctors: Eugene Nagel, MD from Miami, Leonard Cobb, MD, Seattle, J. Michael Criley, MD, Los Angeles, and Walter Graf, MD, in Los Angeles. These doctors pioneered the idea of mobile medicine and paramedics based on early ideas in Northern Ireland and Russia.

1980s to present

Mantooth appeared in the mini-series adaptations of Testimony of Two Men (1977) and The Seekers (1979–80), the latter with a starring role as Abraham Kent,^[17] based on the John Jakes novel.

Through the 1980s, Mantooth made guest-star appearances on shows such as Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, Dallas, Murder, She Wrote, L.A. Law. He moved back to New York where he explored a new direction in his career with daytime soap operas,^[2] earning him four Soap Opera Digest Award nominations. He played Clay Alden in the soap opera Loving from 1987 through 1990, then left for personal reasons before returning to the show in 1993, this time in the role of Alex Masters. The soap was later revamped and entitled The City but it lasted only two more years. Since then, he has regularly appeared on General Hospital, One Life to Live, and As the World Turns, where he has played both good guys and villains.^[2] In 2003, Mantooth joined the cast of As the World Turns as a temporary replacement for Benjamin Hendrickson in the role of Hal Munson. When Hendrickson left the show in 2004, Mantooth was again cast as Munson, also in a recurring position; Hendrickson returned to the program in 2005. In 2007, Mantooth landed the recurring role of Kirk Harmon on One Life to Live.

Also in the 1990s, Mantooth starred in television movies such as White Cobra Express and as Bing Tupper in both the movie Before the Storm and series Under Cover. He also starred in a CBS Schoolbreak Special as Mr. Leland in "Please, God, I'm Only Seventeen". In 1999 he played Solonsky in the feature film Enemy Action. Mantooth also made guest appearances in shows such as China Beach, MacGyver, Baywatch, Diagnosis Murder, JAG, Promised Land (TV series), and Walker, Texas Ranger during the 1990s.

In 2000 Mantooth played Ken Crandall in the television movie Bitter Suite (original title Time Share) and in 2007 he played Dutch Fallon in the television movie Fire Serpent. Feature film roles include Admiral Edwards in Agent Red (2000), Dr. Willis in He Was a Quiet Man (2007), Ambasador Cartwright in Scream of the Bikini (2009), Richard Cranehill in Bold Native (2010), and Detective Bodrogi in Killer Holiday (2013). Mantooth also starred in series such as ER, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, and most recently as Charlie Horse in Sons of Anarchy in 2011.

Mantooth has frequently returned to his theatre roots in such productions as Arsenic and Old Lace (play) at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre in 1983, Footprints in Blood, Back to the Blankets, Wink Dah, The Independence of Eddie Rose, The Paper Crown, The Inuit and Rain Dance (off-Broadway), among others.^[2] Since 2003, Mantooth has been an Associate Artist of The Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea, Michigan, founded by Jeff Daniels,^[18] completing a three-month run of Superior Donuts in 2012.^[19]

Filmography

TV series

TV movies

Feature film

• Enemy Action (1999)
• Agent Red (2000)
• Price to Pay (2006)
• Fire Serpent (2007)
• He Was a Quiet Man (2007)
• On the Revolutions of Heavenly Sheres (Film short) (2007)
• Flowers and Weeds (Film short) (2008)
• Scream of the Bikini (2009)
• Bold Native (2010)
• Killer Holiday (2013)

Daytime drama series

• Loving
• The City
• General Hospital
• One Life to Live
• As the World Turns

(1990) Nominated Soap Opera Digest Award –
Outstanding Hero: Daytime (Loving)

(1995) Nominated Soap Opera Digest Award –
Outstanding Supporting Actor (Loving)

(1996) Nominated Soap Opera Digest Award –
Outstanding Male Scene Stealer (Loving)

(1997) Nominated Soap Opera Digest Award –
Outstanding Supporting Actor (The City)

References

External links

• Official website
• Randolph Mantooth on Facebook
• Randolph Mantooth at the Internet Movie Database
• Randolph Mantooth at TV.com