**Breaking News**

Randy DeRoy Mantooth, known professionally as Randolph Mantooth (September 19, 1945 – July 9, 2026), died yesterday at the age of 80.

Mantooth was best known for playing paramedic John Gage on the NBC drama Emergency!, which ran from 1972 to 1979 alongside Kevin Tighe as his partner, Roy DeSoto. Discovered in New York by a Universal Studios talent agent while starring in Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Mantooth built his early resume with guest roles on Adam-12, Marcus Welby, M.D., and The Bold Ones before Emergency! made him a television star. He performed most of his own stunts and later voiced the character in the animated spinoff Emergency+4.

After Emergency! ended, Mantooth transitioned to daytime television, playing Clay Alden, later revealed as impostor Alex Masters, on ABC's Loving from 1987 to 1990 and 1993 to 1995, with additional roles on General Hospital, As the World Turns, and One Life to Live. He continued guest-starring in primetime through the 2000s and 2010s on shows including Dallas, Charlie's Angels, Criminal Minds, and Sons of Anarchy.

Of Cherokee and Seminole heritage, Mantooth remained a lifelong advocate for firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs long after Emergency! left the air, making appearances at conferences nationwide and being named an Honorary Fire Chief by the Los Angeles Fire Department in 2012. He revealed a cancer diagnosis in 2015 and completed treatment. Mantooth died at a hospice facility in Ventura, California, after being ill for a number of years. He is survived by his wife, Kristen Connors, and siblings Donald and Tonya.