Randolph Mantooth

Randolph Mantooth (born Randy DeRoy Mantooth, 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 portrayed paramedic John Gage in the 1970s medical drama, ''Emergency!''. Randolph Mantooth has spoken regularly at Firefighter and EMS conferences and symposia across the United States while maintaining an active acting career. He is a spokesperson for both the International Association of Firefighters AFFand the International Association of Fire Chiefs AFCfor firefighter health and safety, and honored over the years with numerous awards and recognition.

Mantooth has appeared in numerous films and television series in lead and supportive roles including miniseries adaptations of ''Testimony of Two Men'' (1977) and a starring role as Abraham Kent in ''The Seekers'' (1979). Through the 1990s and 2000s, he appeared in daytime soap operas, earning him four Soap Opera Digest Award nominations. He frequently returns to performing in theatrical productions. He serves as an associate artist at Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre. His performances includes Mark Kaufman's ''Evil Little Thoughts'', ''Black Elk Speaks'', Carey Crim's ''Morning after Grace'', Lanford Wilson's ''Rain Dance'', and innumerable works by Native American playwrights including William S. Yellow Robe, Jr.

History

Mantooth, the oldest of four children, was born as Randy DeRoy Mantooth in Sacramento, California, in 1945, to Sadie (née Neddenreip) and Donald "Buck" Mantooth. He is of Seminole, Cherokee, Potawatomi, Scottish, and German descent. His siblings are Don, Nancy and Tonya.

Mantooth 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. It was there that he chose to change his first name from "Randy" to stage name "Randolph", keeping his last name.

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.

Mantooth's earlier jobs included work as an elevator operator at the Madison Avenue 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.

Randy married Rosemarie A Parra on July 1, 1978.

On April 2, 2013, Mantooth's mother, Sadie Mantooth, died at age 90 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. The Los Angeles County Fire Museum received a special donation from him dedicated to the memory of his mother.

In 2015, he revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer earlier that year and had completed treatment, heading towards a recovery.

Career

Early work (1970s)

Mantooth was discovered in New York City by Universal Studios' talent agent Eleanor Kilgallen (sister of Dorothy Kilgallen) while playing the lead in the play ''Philadelphia, Here I Come''. 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).

This led to television stardom on the popular ''Emergency!'' series in 1972 which aired on NBC for six seasons. He earned further roles in two series. Mantooth portrayed Lt. Mike Bender on ''Operation Petticoat'' (1977) and as Eddie Dawkins on ''Detective School'' (1979). He was featured as a guest performer on episodic television. He appeared on several programs including '' Sierra'', ''Cos'', ''The Love Boat'', ''Battlestar Galactica'' and ''Vega$''.

''Emergency!'' (1972–1979)

Producer Robert A. Cinader saw Randolph Mantooth in a small role on ''The Bold Ones'' opposite Hal Holbrook that led to his decision to cast him as paramedic John Gage on ''Emergency!'' Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe were part of a paramedic team assigned to Squad 51 of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. 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 Advanced Life Support (ALS) techniques to stabilize injured, ill, and dying patients before transporting them to a medical facility.

To train for their parts, the actors, Randolph 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". 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". 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.

At the time of the series' world premiere in 1972, there were only 12 paramedical units in North America located in four municipalities. 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.

The show ran six seasons (129 episodes) with seven two-hour television movie specials including the pilot film (''The Wedsworth-Townsend Act''). with a national audience that averaged 30 million viewers each week. Mantooth directed two episodes of ''Emergency!''; "The Nuisance" (1976) and "Insanity Epidemic" (1977), and also directed the television movie ''Greatest Rescues of Emergency'' (1978). Mantooth and Tighe did many of their own stunts in the early years with the rule of thumb, "if you could see our faces, it was us doing the stunts; if you couldn't, it was our stunt doubles." He was offered an opportunity after ''Emergency!'' went off the air to be an actual firefighter, but decided to continue with acting.

Nearly 30 years after ''Emergency!'' debuted, the Smithsonian Institution accepted ''Emergency!'' memorabilia into its American History Museum in the public service division and not entertainment on May 16, 2000. Items inducted at the Smithsonian included their uniforms, scripts, helmets, turnouts, biophone, and defibrillator.

In conjunction to the induction of the equipment from ''Emergency!'' at the Smithsonian, Project 51 was created in an effort to raise funds for a children's burn charity, and exhibit the restored squad around the country. Mantooth, along with Marco Lopez, Tim Donnelly, Ron Pinkard and Mike Stoker embarked on a 10-city tour with the squad to raise funds for charity on their way to Washington, D.C. with their final destination being the Smithsonian. Project 51 folded after the equipment was inducted into the Smithsonian and the funds were distributed to burn centers, fire education projects, and museums.

In 2012, Mantooth and Tighe were presented with the traditional white leather cairns helmets by the Los Angeles County Fire Department as Honorary Fire Chiefs of the department. The honor was bestowed on the men for their contributions to the fire service and emergency medicine through educating and inspiring kids and adults to be firefighters, EMTs, or paramedics. The series contributed to the revolution in emergency medicine and mobile health across the country.

The series was placed into syndication in 1977 as ''Emergency! One'' to some local stations in the late 1970s. It was called ''Emergency! One'' because the show was still filming new episodes in the United States. After the show ended, the name reverted to ''Emergency!'' The show was sold overseas and aired in a number of countries, including Germany where it was renamed ''Notruf California'', in addition to being dubbed in Spanish in the United States.

In the late 1990s and 2000s, ''Emergency!'' began airing on cable and digital sub-channels networks that included TV Land, RTV, MeTV, and Cozi TV. ''Emergency!'' spun off an animated version called ''Emergency +4'' aired on NBC Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1976, with Mantooth and Kevin Tighe voicing the animated characters of John Gage and Roy DeSoto. '' Starship Rescue'' aired in 1973 to promote NBC's fall lineup of Saturday morning programs focusing on ''Emergency!'' and '' Star Trek: The Animated Series'' and it was hosted by Mantooth and Tighe. Tighe and Mantooth also presented the work of firefighters and paramedics from the Los Angeles County Fire Department on the NBC Saturday morning children's series '' Go!''.

Mantooth's and Tighe's likeness were used for games, puzzles, lunch boxes, action figures, and comic books connected to the series. The comic books for Emergency focused on the primary actors from Rampart Hospital, along with Johnny and Roy. The four comic books, and four magazines, were issued by Charlton Comics in 1976. Some of the issues were drawn by John Byrne and Neal Adams. ''Emergency! +4'' and ''Emergency!'' both had coloring books that were created to promote the series to young viewers using the likenesses of the five principal characters. Viewmaster released a series of reels that had film stills of the show arranged in a story or photo montage.

Mantooth and Kevin Tighe's characters John Gage and Roy DeSoto appeared on another Robert A. Cinader created series, '' Sierra''. The series focused on National Park Service Rangers stationed in the Sierras. Mantooth and Tighe appeared in the episode, "Urban Rangers". Mantooth's character appeared on a crossover episode of ''Adam-12'' called "Lost and Found".

The on-screen camaraderie between Mantooth and Tighe, as well as their friendship with both London and Troup, carried over to real life as well. Before London's and Troup's deaths, all four remained close friends after the series came to a close, and Tighe served as best man at Mantooth's second wedding in 2002.

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 series with them for seven years they all became like family. In the same interview while discussing happenings behind the scenes and blooper reels, Mantooth said 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'". In a 2013 interview with ''The Tolucan Times'', Mantooth said of his decades-long colleague, "Julie London was a mentor to all of us. She let the words work for her, rather than emoting; that’s all anybody needed."

Firefighter/EMS advocate and spokesperson

In addition to Mantooth working as an actor for over forty years, he has remained an advocate of firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, and other emergency medical services providers. He does 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". 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

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