For fans wondering how Randolph Mantooth died, his family confirmed that the 'Emergency!' star and long‑time advocate for emergency medical workers died on Thursday in Ventura, California, at the age of 80, from complications of pneumonia, according to his sister, Tonya Mantooth.
Mantooth became a household name in the 1970s through 'Emergency!,' the NBC drama that ran from 1972 to 1977 and followed the lives of Los Angeles County firefighters and paramedics. At a time when many Americans had never even heard the word 'paramedic,' his character, John Gage, helped put the developing field of emergency medicine squarely in prime time and, as many in the profession would later argue, into the public consciousness too.
