US actor Randolph Mantooth, best known for 1970s action drama Emergency!, has died.
US actor Randolph Mantooth, best known for 1970s action drama Emergency!, has died aged 80.
He died on Thursday at a hospice facility in California, having been ill for a number of years.
Mantooth (pictured left) starred as firefighter-paramedic Johnny Gage on Emergency!, a show which impacted real life front-line workers around America.
When he was told he was going to play a paramedic, the first thing Mantooth said was, “What the hell is a paramedic?” he once said in an interview.
When the show premiered, there were 12 paramedic units in all of North America. In the next three years, 46 states enacted laws that allowed paramedics to practice emergency medicine. Within 10 years, more than half of all Americans were within 10 minutes of a paramedic rescue or ambulance unit.
Mantooth played Gage opposite Kevin Tighe (pictured right) as his partner, Roy DeSoto, on the series created by Dragnet legend Jack Webb and Robert A. Cinader. The show ran for six seasons, from 1972 to 1977, followed by seven telemovies and even spawned an animated series. Uniquely, the characters crossed over into Adam-12 and Dragnet.
The pair took paramedic classes, where they learned how to insert an IV, and trained with the fire department. Cinader wanted the show to be funny but told his actors that “when the [station alarm sounds], funny is left at the door. You are now a professional.”
He also featured on Operation Petticoat, Detective School, The Seekers, Battlestar Galactica, Charlie’s Angels, The Fall Guy, Diagnosis Murder, L.A. Law, General Hospital, As the World Turns, One Life to Live and Sons of Anarchy in 2011.
A year later, he and Tighe were named honourary fire chiefs by the L.A. County Fire Department.
Source: Hollywood Reporter