In Dublin, according to Mantell's biographer
Clarence J. Bulliet, "there was a dramatic club, which young Bob Mantell, semi-clandestinely, because of parental objections, was one of the burning tapers". While his mother approved of such amateur stage productions, she had a "horror of the professional stage". When he resolved to pursue a career on the stage, his mother refused to assist him until he swore to change his name to Robert Hudson, and to go to America to ply his craft. With this assurance given, his mother presented Robert with "the same little sum of money she had given his older brothers when they started out into the world". However, after a mere 10 days in Boston, with no job and no prospects, Robert was down to exactly enough money to purchase a return ticket. He bought a ticket on the
Hecla and returned home to Ireland. His first theatrical job (still using the name Robert Hudson) was with a stock company at the Theatre Royal, in
Rochdale, Lancashire, where, on 21 October 1876, he made his stage debut in
Dion Boucicault's
Arrah-na-Pogue. The company disbanded after one year, and Mantell joined the Heffernan company, performing abridged versions of
Macbeth,
Othello,
Richard III and
Hamlet that were "so hydraulically condensed that he could give ten or a dozen performances a day". He joined the company of Alice Marriott, and remained until 1878 when he set sail again for America. Using his real name for the first time, he won the part of
Tybalt in the Leyland Opera House production of
Romeo and Juliet. There he joined George S. Knight's company, portraying Iago in Shakespeare's
Othello opposite Frank Clement, who played the title character. In Knight's company he played several roles in Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet, and
Macbeth. In 1883 he again headed to America. His first leading role in America was as Sir Clement Huntingford in
The World. He attained critical and popular acclaim in the role of Loris Ipanoff in
Fanny Davenport's 1883–84 production of
Fedora. After that, leading roles came quickly and steadily. He starred in John Keller's
Tangled Lives in 1886, starred in
The Marble Heart in 1887, and in
Monbars in 1887–88. By 1890, "MantQell believed himself strong enough to venture on a tour on his own account, after the fashion of the English actor-managers and pocket all the profits". In 1892, he opened at New York's Proctors Theatre in Charles Osborne's
The Face in the Moonlight, with
Caroline Miskel, a young actress who was just at the beginning of her brief career on Broadway. for the Cincinnati Post, 1928 In the last 5 years of the 19th century he toured extensively, putting on performances of
Monbars,
Othello,
Hamlet and
The Corsican Brothers in town after town, state after state—everywhere but New York. When the lawyers finally resolved his alimony difficulties, Mantell – now significantly older – returned to New York, but not as a romantic lead, as he had been known for so many years, but as a classic tragedian. One of his first leading roles after his return to New York was as
Richard III, where he demonstrated that "the line of great tragedians on the American stage had not ended with
Edwin Booth". Work came easily after that. At one point, he was starring in
Richard III one week,
Richelieu the second week,
Othello the third week, and
Hamlet the fourth week in rotation. Mantell played Cawdor in
Macbeth many times over, but
King Lear was by far his "masterwork". He played the role over and over, refining and perfecting it from the 1910s almost until his death. Robert B. Mantell died at his home in
Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey on 27 June 1928. ==Filmography==