Marjoe Gortner, who was ordained as a child evangelist at age 4 and later pulled back the curtain on the revival circuit in the Oscar-winning documentary “Marjoe,” has died. He was 82.
He died Friday in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his wife, Susan Magestro, told Variety. His family said the cause was complications from congestive heart failure, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
“Marjoe lived an extraordinary life, shaped by his imagination and rare gift for bringing people together,” Magestro’s memorial notice said, according to Variety.
From the pulpit to Hollywood
Gortner was born Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner in Long Beach, California, on Jan. 14, 1944. His first name blended “Mary” and “Joseph.” Raised in an evangelical family, he was ordained by his parents as a small child, and at 4 he performed a wedding ceremony that was filmed for a Paramount newsreel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Throughout his childhood, the family traveled the country holding revival meetings and collecting donations that were reported to total about $3 million. Gortner said his father disappeared with the money around the time Gortner turned 16.
Disillusioned with evangelism by his 20s, Gortner was pursuing acting in New York, Variety reported. In 1971, he allowed filmmakers Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan to document his last revival tour, partly to draw attention to his acting ambitions.
The resulting film, “Marjoe,” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972 and won the Oscar for best documentary feature. On camera, Gortner explains the techniques he and other preachers used to sway revival audiences, and one scene shows him counting a day’s collections in his hotel room. The documentary later dropped out of circulation for years until Kernochan tracked down its owner and secured the rights, Variety reported.
Gortner went on to record a 1972 album, “Bad, but Not Evil,” and landed a contract with Universal. His first screen role was a drug addict in the 1973 TV movie “The Marcus-Nelson Murders,” the pilot that launched the CBS police drama “Kojak.”
He was often cast as volatile or shady characters. In the 1974 disaster film “Earthquake,” he played Jody Joad, a grocery store manager who turns violent after he is called up with the National Guard, and in 1979’s “When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?” he was a Vietnam veteran who holds a group of people hostage. His other films included “Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw” (1976) with Lynda Carter, “Viva Knievel!” (1977), the science fiction adventure “Starcrash” (1978) and Walter Hill’s 1995 western “Wild Bill,” in which he played a preacher in one of his final roles.
His television credits included “Police Story,” “Fantasy Island,” “The A-Team” and “Airwolf.” During the 1986-87 season of CBS’ “Falcon Crest,” he appeared in 17 episodes as Vince Karlotti, a polygamist posing as a psychic, a part The Hollywood Reporter said drew on his own past.
Away from the screen, Gortner produced “Circus of the Stars” specials and celebrity sports events that raised money for charities. Actor Ian Ziering, who knew him through those events, called him “a force of nature” in a tribute quoted by Variety, crediting him with raising millions of dollars for charitable causes.
Survivors include Magestro, his fifth wife; the couple wed in 2019. In the late 1970s, Gortner was briefly married to actress Candy Clark, his co-star in “When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?” Information about memorial services was not immediately available.
