Robert Bruce Mantell

A friend of ours from Studio One has a family project that she is working on. Here is the story in her words.

"My great grandfather, Robert Bruce Mantell, was a Shakespearean actor. He was sort of a Richard Burton of his time. Charlotte Behrens was my great grandmother. I have located the descendents of my great grandfather's family and we are planning a family reunion in Scotland in May. I took over the genealogy search work for my mother after she died and I have located family in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Scotland.

I wanted to bring something special to the get together. I asked myself what Oprah's people would do in this situation. A film from that time when my great grandfather would travel home to Scotland to visit his familly. I contacted the Debbie Reynolds Film Museum. There isn't enough time to do it this year, but I want to keep trying. I need internet votes!

I have found that some of the films he acted in are still in existance. I would dearly love to see even one of them so have been asking everyone I know or even people I don't know, to help me with online votes. This was the best idea I had from the Debbie Reynolds film museum people whom I contacted.

At first, the only film I knew about was Under the Red Robe - where Robert Bruce Mantell plays the Cardinal. Since then, My nephew, Mark has found several others!

There can be only one vote per e-mail address." This is the link to cast your vote, http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=504017.

Robert Bruce Mantell
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.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver


Spouse
Marie Booth Russell (1899 - 31 October 1911) (her death) 1 child
Charlotte Behrens (1896 - 1898) (her death) 1 child
Genevieve Hamper (? - 27 June 1928) (his death)
Margaret Shand (? - ?) (divorced)
Marie Sheldon (? - 1893) (divorced)