Biography

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 50 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 [IAFF] and the International Association of Fire Chiefs [IAFC] for 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. 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.