Robert B. Mantell(1854-1928)
- Actor
Scots stage actor who late in life appeared in a number of silent
films. Educated in Belfast, Ireland, Mantell traveled to America at 24
and played in "Romeo and Juliet" and "East Lynne" with Helena Modjeska.
He worked constantly in America and Great Britain and established
himself as a great success in Shakespearean works. Mantell married five
times and was widowed twice. His third wife, Charlotte Behrens, had
been his leading lady. Married, she fell in love with Mantell and lived
openly with him. Her husband threatened to kill Mantell, who was also
married. Following a divorce for each of them, they married, but
Charlotte died less than two years later under cloudy circumstances.
His fourth wife, Marie Booth Russell, was also his leading lady, and
she too died at an early age, of Bright's Disease, in 1911. Mantell's
fifth wife, Genevieve Hamper, was another of his leading ladies. She survived
him when he died at 74, in 1928, following a nervous collapse.
Mantell's son, Robert B. Mantell Jr. appeared in a few films before his
suicide.