Biography
Veteran actor Fred Mancuso was born in Massena NY and grew up in Pittsburgh PA, one of four from a model-dancer mother and football playing-engineer father. Coming from a creative family, he began singing, playing the guitar, and acting at age seven. His father passed from brain cancer when he was 12. Fred took his younger brother Kirk under his wing. His mother, a dancer from Richmond VA worked and raised the four retiring from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in (2013). Fred served in the US Air Force from (1986-1990) being stationed in North Carolina until transferring to Los Angeles CA to live with his brother Joe in (1989). Joe graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in music and drama in (1988) as did sister Lauri Mancuso in (1991) in fine arts. Fred went to an open call for the Miami Vice Stunt Show at Universal Studios Tour in (1990) to practice a monologue. Alex Plasschaert and Nicholas Plasschaert cast him as a smuggler for the live action show. He worked bouncing at the Comedy Store and Roxbury night clubs in Hollywood, the latter of which he met Joe Pecoraro who became his manager and Mara Santino then an assistant with the JHR Agency. Mara invited him to wait in the lobby at the acting agency, as he had no formal training or credits, and Cynthia Kazarian signed him commercially. The agency submitted him for a few theatrical roles, one of which came in (1990) when he was cast by John Frank Levey in "Cain," a TV pilot with Maura Tierney and William Morgan Sheppard who became his acting mentor and coach ushering him into the depths of the craft of acting in addition to getting his SAG card. Morgan, a Royal Shakespearean company graduate, spent countless hours giving him and the other actors at the Vincent Chase workshop in Hollywood the tools and method, while being a working actor himself. This priceless education, apprenticeship if you will, was enhanced with Patrick Gorman coming on scene in (1993) when they worked together in the film Gettysburg (1993). Mr. Gorman, a veteran himself of both the Navy and the US Army, is a working actor himself with a black belt in Aikido and roughly 18,000 performances under his belt to date from the time he was age five. With brilliance, honesty, eloquence, and class they helped guide Fred the actor and the man. Fred said of Pat in acting terms, "Patrick brought stillness to the group and that stillness dropped our centers low, which became the inner weight that Morgan talked about as a necessity in transcendent acting. Having a low center refines and adds a foundation and sturdiness to the role." Fred met Robert Blake in Brett Dunham (Meisner) workshop in (1990). These men impacted his life as to the stick-to-it-ness necessary in persevering through life challenges and obstacle that occur in the life of an actor. Fred played Randy Carter, a series regular on the soap opera Dangerous Women (1991), played Rollins in the film The Deadly Avenger (1992), filmed Made in America (1993) opposite Jennifer Tilly playing Bruce, and as Pratt in Sudden Death (1995) with Powers Boothe. The muse led him in July (1996) to the Live Action "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show" playing a Cowboy and rodeo clown. He returned to the theatre in (1998) playing Lee in "True West" by Sam Shepard in Carson and Virginia Cities NV, followed by Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" with A Noise Within theater group where he interned in (1999) in Los Angeles. Joel Swetow directed him in Shakespeare's "As you Like it" in (2000) at The Actor's CO-OP in Hollywood. In late summer of (2001) Fred was in rehearsals for a stage production of "The Lion in Winter" as Prince Richard at the Newport Center Theatre. The night of September 10th, after rehearsal he worked to finish a handy man job all night arriving home at 8 am the morning of the 11th (2001). Following the terrorist attacks on our country he walked to the US Army recruiter and enlisted that day leaving for basic training in January (2002). He participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom in (2003) with the 1st Brigade/ 3rd Infantry Division "Rock of the Marne", and following his deployment went to SFAS and was selected as a SF recruit. He was inducted into the 1st Regiment/ US Army Special Forces in (2006) and assigned to 10th SF Group as an Engineer Sergeant. He deployed again to Iraq in (2007), (2008), and (2009), and Africa in (2009) and (2010), the latter serving on training and humanitarian aid missions. Fred discharged from the Army in (2012) and returned to Los Angeles and the craft playing Bob in the TV movie Christmas in the City (2013) and played Finbar Skippins in the independent film [error]. In Jan (2014) he produced, directed, and played Lee in Sam Shepard's "True West" at the Whitefire Theatre in Los Angeles. This was a tribute performance to honor SSG Rob Pirelli and others who lost their lives in service to the country. This production solidified his path and direction as an actor after much contemplation considering his awareness and abilities learned in the military and the state of worldly affairs. Fred appreciates the VA in helping him to cope and extend creatively through the post service conditions and abilities. In (2015) he played Marcus Antony in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" at the Long Beach Shakespeare Co, then as Hook in "Lost Boyz" (2016), an independent TV Pilot. He also co-wrote, produced, and acted in the short film Blind Faith (2015) with Ryan de Quintal and Francisco Ramirez directing. While being represented by Courtney Peldon at Aqua Talent and managed at by Wendy Peldon he had roles on Colony (2016) as the Grey Hat CO (2017), played Vincent in S.W.A.T. (2017) on CBS in (2017), was cast in Grace and Frankie (2015) (2018) as the Angriest Man in the World, as Bounty #1 on Lucifer (2016) in (2018), the Hunter #1 on Escape the Night (2016) in (2018), the mobster Tony Corsetti on FOX' Lethal Weapon (2016) in (2018) directed by April Mullen, and as Scotty on the Netflix series No Good Nick (2019). While filming these Fred produced multiple stage productions and all at the Whitefire Theatre in LA; produced, directed, and starred as Lennie in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" (2018), produced the World Premier stage production of "The Dogs Pond" by Travis G. Baker along with Derek Long who also directed the piece with Fred starring as Bergsey also in (2018), produced an Equity run of Sam Shepard's "Simpatico" in the spring of (2019) with Derek Long directing and Mancuso starring as Vinnie, followed by Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love" playing the Old Man in the summer (2019) which he also produced and directed. He was briefly married in (2006) but long enough for his then wife to produce two sons Anthony Joseph in (2007) and Ronan Liam in (2008) for which he is grateful. The Boys were born during deployments and are beautiful and gifted miraculous treasures... his constant love and consideration. "The great gift in life is being a father to the boys," said Fred. Speaking about W. Morgan Sheppard (1932-2019) he said, "Morgan compelled us to look at the craft of acting autobiographically, to make adjustments and remain consistently authentic, examining the authors intentions while making strong positive choices, accepting what is the same about us and the character and only altering what is different. He, like Stanislavski, believed in actions as the driving force of any scene and encouraged us to endure and sustain the process of developing them, to making the words springboards for our intention, and to consider every scene is life changing life altering." Fred believes that the very best acting in the actor who listens. "The Groundlings (Improvisation training 1997) showed us that to do good improv we had to listen outside and inside at the same time accepting everything and deny nothing to make it work. It is what being present looks like by definition. Even playing a period or historical piece, our head can be clouded by technique or a historical dissertation of what happened at that time in history, and does nothing but leave us more obstacles to weed through and keeps us stuck in our heads and not able to connect to the other actors presently. I love actors and acting. It's a model for life and the best are fearless. I applaud those who constantly have to consider fame, stardom and other potential me-ism's and keep producing wonderful performances with so much at stake. Morgan was all about the "Kiss" principle of keeping it simple. I leave stooped at the end out. I can never judge myself or others correctly. There's no room for self-loathing. Acceptance is a key. Morgan agreed with Stanislavsky that one can't play the preparation. We just have to put the time in and show up more than ready (says the Green Beret). Having an open mind and listening are necessary elements within the craft of acting, an invitation for the audience to experience a moment themselves being freely inspired through their enthusiasm. It's an intrusion of sorts to dictate or project to the audience members what they should feel or get from a performance. I believe this limits the imagination and spontaneity and therefore our creativity and doesn't give the director anything but a self-absorbed actor that doesn't work... literally and figuratively. The business can be a playground of gossip and speculation and I steer clear at all costs. The entertainment business is the most balanced transitional experience for me and my military experience in the civilian life. I find leaning in creatively is necessary for combat vets. In naming his Preatorean production company he adds, "The Praetorian was guardian of the emperor of Rome. The Preatorean is the Guardian of the Realms of men...all realms and all people within each. ~ De Oppresso Lieber ~" Fred currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
