Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Randolph Mantooth Knew He Was Going To Dieđ
Randolph Mantooth, who starred as the goofy but gallant firefighter-paramedic Johnny Gage on Emergency!, the 1970s NBC action show that changed life-saving services as we know it, has died. He was 80.
Mantooth died Thursday at a hospice facility in Ventura, California, his brother, Donald Mantooth, told The Hollywood Reporter. He had been âill for a number of years and kept getting thinner and thinner,â he said.
Mantooth also had two stints (1987-90 and 1993-95) as Clay Alden/Alex Masters on the ABC soap opera Loving, and he appeared on other daytime serials including ABCâs General Hospital, CBSâ As the World Turns and ABCâs One Life to Live.
Mantooth was just getting started as a contract player at Universal when he was hired in 1971 to play Gage opposite Kevin Tighe as his partner, Roy DeSoto, on Emergency!, created by Dragnet legend Jack Webb and Robert A. Cinader.
When he was told he was going to play a paramedic, the first thing Mantooth said was, âWhat the hell is a paramedic? At that time, there were only [a handful] in all of California,â he told Amy Harrington in a 2013 interview for the TV Academy Foundation website The Interviews.
He said he initially didnât want to do it because it meant he would have to get a haircut.
Gage and the more buttoned-down DeSoto worked out the Los Angeles County Fire Departmentâs Station 51, interacting often with Rampart General Hospital personnel Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller), nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London) and Dr. Joe Early (Bobby Troup, Londonâs real-life husband).
Emergency! aired for six seasons, from January 1972 through May 1977, then tacked on seven telefilms over the next couple of years. There even was a Saturday morning animated series in 1973-74.
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.
Experts say that growth simply would not have occurred without Emergency!
âWhen you take life-saving services out of the hospital and into the field, the number of lives that are saved is incalculable,â Mantooth said. âThe stars just lined up with this show perfectly for a purpose, for a greater purpose.
âI could be remembered for driving a car that has a name like the General Lee, not that thereâs anything wrong with that show. Instead Iâm remembered for something that changed emergency medicine, forever. How lucky can any one person be?â
Randy DeRoy Mantooth was born on Sept. 19, 1945, in Sacramento. He said he lived in 24 states before he turned 18 because his father, Buck, was a pipeline construction engineer whose job kept the family on the move.
âI was never in any town long enough to really cultivate long-lasting relationships with people, so I was always living in my own little fantasy world,â he said.
His mother, Sadie, was a waitress. After she and Buck divorced, she made good on her promise to give each of her four kids a car when they graduated high school.
Mantooth acted for the first time at San Marcos High in Santa Barbara, then followed his acting friends to Santa Barbara City College and then to New Yorkâs American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he changed his first name to the more formal-sounding Randolph.
Rest in power king
#RandolphMantoothemergency
#johnnyGageEmergency
#RadolphMantoothdeath
#RadolphMantoothfuneral
#RadolphMantoothcauseofdeath
Randolph Mantooth Knew He Was Going To Dieđ
Randolph Mantooth, who starred as the goofy but gallant firefighter-paramedic Johnny Gage on Emergency!, the 1970s NBC action show that changed life-saving services as we know it, has died. He was 80.
Mantooth died Thursday at a hospice facility in Ventura, California, his brother, Donald Mantooth, told The Hollywood Reporter. He had been âill for a number of years and kept getting thinner and thinner,â he said.
Mantooth also had two stints (1987-90 and 1993-95) as Clay Alden/Alex Masters on the ABC soap opera Loving, and he appeared on other daytime serials including ABCâs General Hospital, CBSâ As the World Turns and ABCâs One Life to Live.
Mantooth was just getting started as a contract player at Universal when he was hired in 1971 to play Gage opposite Kevin Tighe as his partner, Roy DeSoto, on Emergency!, created by Dragnet legend Jack Webb and Robert A. Cinader.
When he was told he was going to play a paramedic, the first thing Mantooth said was, âWhat the hell is a paramedic? At that time, there were only [a handful] in all of California,â he told Amy Harrington in a 2013 interview for the TV Academy Foundation website The Interviews.
He said he initially didnât want to do it because it meant he would have to get a haircut.
Gage and the more buttoned-down DeSoto worked out the Los Angeles County Fire Departmentâs Station 51, interacting often with Rampart General Hospital personnel Dr. Kelly Brackett (Robert Fuller), nurse Dixie McCall (Julie London) and Dr. Joe Early (Bobby Troup, Londonâs real-life husband).
Emergency! aired for six seasons, from January 1972 through May 1977, then tacked on seven telefilms over the next couple of years. There even was a Saturday morning animated series in 1973-74.
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.
Experts say that growth simply would not have occurred without Emergency!
âWhen you take life-saving services out of the hospital and into the field, the number of lives that are saved is incalculable,â Mantooth said. âThe stars just lined up with this show perfectly for a purpose, for a greater purpose.
âI could be remembered for driving a car that has a name like the General Lee, not that thereâs anything wrong with that show. Instead Iâm remembered for something that changed emergency medicine, forever. How lucky can any one person be?â
Randy DeRoy Mantooth was born on Sept. 19, 1945, in Sacramento. He said he lived in 24 states before he turned 18 because his father, Buck, was a pipeline construction engineer whose job kept the family on the move.
âI was never in any town long enough to really cultivate long-lasting relationships with people, so I was always living in my own little fantasy world,â he said.
His mother, Sadie, was a waitress. After she and Buck divorced, she made good on her promise to give each of her four kids a car when they graduated high school.
Mantooth acted for the first time at San Marcos High in Santa Barbara, then followed his acting friends to Santa Barbara City College and then to New Yorkâs American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he changed his first name to the more formal-sounding Randolph.
Rest in power king
#RandolphMantoothemergency
#johnnyGageEmergency
#RadolphMantoothdeath
#RadolphMantoothfuneral
#RadolphMantoothcauseofdeath
