John Mantley

John Truman Mantley (April 25, 1920 – January 14, 2003) was a Canadian theatrical actor, writer, director, screenwriter and producer of the long-running television series, Gunsmoke, and was Mary Pickford's cousin. 2Family Mantley had a sister, eleven years older than himself, who taught dancing well into her eighties. Mantley said that she was "the one born in a (show business) trunk", but strangely enough, I was the one who ended up involved in television and films." Their father, Cecil Clay Van Manzer, adopted the stage name Clay Mantley. Van Manzer met his wife Violet Petello in 1906 in New York City at the casting of The Convict's Daughter, directed by Maurice Costello. He later wrote playlets which his wife appeared in on the vaudeville circuit. In later years Van Manzer operated a traveling circus while his wife ran a number of concession stands in a park across the lake from Toronto. Their son John operated the candy booth and at 17 traveled with the carnival, serving as the bingo game barker. 2Childhood Reading was Mantley's childhood escape and his dream was to become an actor. While attending St. Catherine's Institute of Vocation School in Toronto, he persuaded a teacher to open a dramatic society, of which he became its first presiden