Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner (born January 14, 1944) is a former evangelist preacher and actor. He first gained public attention during the late 1940s when his parents arranged for him to be

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

as a

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...

at age four, due to his extraordinary speaking ability. He was the youngest known in that position. As a young man, he preached on the revival circuit and brought celebrity to the revival movement. He became a celebrity again during the 1970s when he starred in ''

Marjoe ''Marjoe'' is a 1972 American documentary film produced and directed by Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan about the life of evangelist Marjoe Gortner. It won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Story Marjoe Gortner was a precoc ...

'' (1972), a behind-the-scenes documentary about the lucrative business of

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

preaching, which won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Film. That documentary now is noted as one of the most vehement criticisms of Pentecostal preaching.

Early life

Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner was born in 1944 in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, into a family with a long evangelical heritage. The name "Marjoe" is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsbiblical names "

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

" and "

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

". His father, Vernon Robert Gortner, was a third-generation Christian evangelical minister who preached at revivals. His mother Marge, who has been labelled as "exuberant," was the person who introduced him as a preacher, and is notable for his success as a child. Vernon noticed his son's talent for mimicry and his fearlessness of strangers and public settings. His parents claimed the boy had received a vision from God during a bath, and he started preaching. Marjoe later said that was a fictional story that his parents forced him to repeat. He claimed they compelled him to do that by using mock-drowning episodes; they did not beat him as they did not want to leave bruises that might be noticed during his many public appearances. They trained him to deliver sermons, complete with dramatic gestures and emphatic lunges. When he was four, his parents arranged for him to perform a marriage ceremony attended by the press, including photographers from ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

'' and

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

studios. Until his teenage years, Gortner and his parents traveled throughout the United States holding

revival meeting A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held to inspire active members of a church body to gain new converts and to call sinners to repent. Nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said, "Many blessings may come t ...

s, and by 1951 his younger brother Vernoe had been incorporated into the act. As well as teaching Marjoe scriptural passages, his parents also taught him several money-raising tactics, including the sale of supposedly "holy" articles at revivals. He would promise that such items could be used to heal the sick and dying. By the time he was sixteen, his family had amassed what he later estimated to be three million dollars. Shortly after Gortner's sixteenth birthday, his father absconded with the money. Disillusioned, Gortner then left his mother for

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. In the years that followed, Gortner took a break from preaching. He grew resentful of his parents and bitter over the childhood they had forced upon him. At age 20, Gortner considered suing his parents, but never did.

Career

Gortner spent the remainder of his teenage years as an itinerant beatnik. Hard pressed for money in his early twenties, he decided to put his old skills to work and re-emerged on the preaching circuit with a charismatic stage show modeled after those of contemporary rock stars, most notably

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

of the Rolling Stones. He made enough money to take six months off every year, during which he returned to California and lived off his earnings before returning to the circuit. In the late 1960s, Gortner experienced a crisis of conscience about his double life. He decided his performing talents might be put to use as an actor or singer. When approached by documentarians Howard Smith and

Sarah Kernochan Sarah Marshall Kernochan (; born December 30, 1947) is an American documentarian, film director, screenwriter and novelist. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including two Academy Awards ( Documentary Feature for '' Marjoe'' in 1 ...

, he agreed to let their film crew follow him throughout 1971 on a final tour of revival meetings in California,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, and

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. Unknown to everyone involvedincluding, at one point, his fatherhe gave "backstage" interviews to the filmmakers between sermons and revivals, some including other preachers, explaining intimate details of how he and other ministers operated. The filmmakers also shot footage of him while counting the money he had collected during the day, later in his hotel room. The resulting film, ''

'', won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary. Gortner capitalized on the success of the documentary. '' Oui'' magazine hired him to cover

Millennium '73 Millennium '73 was a three-day festival held on November 8–10, 1973 at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, United States, by the Divine Light Mission (DLM). It featured Prem Rawat, then known as Guru Maharaj Ji, a 15-year-old guru and the leader of ...

, a November 1973 festival headlined by the "boy guru" Guru Maharaj Ji. He cut an LP with Chelsea Records titled ''Bad, but Not Evil'', named after his description of himself in the documentary. He began his acting career with a featured role in ''

The Marcus-Nelson Murders This is a list of episodes for the television series '' Kojak''. The first five seasons ( Pilot + 118 ep.) were aired on CBS from 1973 until 1978. CBS also commissioned a pair of TV movies in 1985 and 1987. ABC revived ''Kojak'' in 1989 for five ...

'', the 1973

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

for the ''

Kojak ''Kojak'' is an American action crime drama television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theodopolis "Theo" Kojak. Taking the time slot of the popular ''Cannon'' series, ...

'' TV series. In 1974, he made several appearances in film and television. In the disaster film, ''

Earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

'', he was Sgt. Jody Joad, a psychotic grocery manager-turned-

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

sman, the main antagonist. He starred in the television movies '' The Gun and the Pulpit'' and '' Pray for the Wildcats'', and appeared in an episode of '' Nakia'', a 1974

police drama The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eithe ...

on ABC. Gortner portrayed the psychopathic, hostage-taking drug dealer in

Milton Katselas Milton George Katselas (December 22, 1933 – October 24, 2008) was an American director and producer of stage and film, as well as a Hollywood acting instructor and coach who trained under Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg at the acclaimed ''Act ...

's 1979 screen adaptation of

Mark Medoff Mark Medoff (March 18, 1940 – April 23, 2019) was an American playwright, screenwriter, film and theatre director, actor, and professor. His play '' Children of a Lesser God'' received both the Tony Award and the Olivier Award The Laurence ...

's play ''

When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? ''When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?'' is a play by Mark Medoff. The setting is Foster's Diner, a New Mexico rest stop that lost most of its clientele when a new highway bypass opened. Employees include restless cook Stephen (nicknamed "Red Ryder ...

''. He starred in a number of B-movies including ''

Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw ''Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw'' is a 1976 crime drama film directed by Mark L. Lester and starring Marjoe Gortner and Lynda Carter. The film marks the big screen debut of Lynda Carter and was released four months after her first appearance as ...

'' (1976), '' The Food of the Gods'' (1976), and '' Starcrash'' (1978). In the early 1980s, Gortner hosted the short-lived reality TV series, '' Speak Up, America''. He also appeared frequently in the 1980s ''

Circus of the Stars ''Circus of the Stars'' was an annual television special, broadcast by the CBS network in the United States, in which celebrities performed circus-type acts. With 19 shows in total, the first was broadcast in 1977 and the last was in 1994. Ove ...

'' specials. He also played a terrorist preacher in a second-season episode of ''

Airwolf ''Airwolf'' is an American action military drama television series that centers on a high-technology military helicopter, code-named ''Airwolf'', and its crew. The show follows them as they undertake various exotic missions, many involving e ...

'', and appeared on '' Falcon Crest'' as corrupt psychic-cum-medium "Vince Karlotti" (1986–87). His last role was as a preacher in the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

'' Wild Bill'' (1995).

Personal life

In 1971, Gortner married Agnes Benjamin, who had appeared in his documentary. From 1978 to December 14, 1979, Gortner was married to actress Candy Clark. Until 2009, Gortner produced Celebrity Sports Invitational charity golf tournaments and ski events to raise money for charities such as the Dream Foundation and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s Waterkeeper Alliance, retiring in January 2010.

Stage play and film retrospective

In 2007, the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival commissioned actor and writer Brian Osborne to write a one-man play about Gortner. The play, ''The Word'', premiered at the Festival with Suli Holum as director and main collaborator. In 2010, the play was recreated as ''The Word: A House Party for Jesus'', with director Whit MacLaughlin. The new play opened October 14, 2010, in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and has since been performed in New York (the Soho Playhouse),

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, Philadelphia (the 2011 NET Festival), and

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

(the Kelly Strayhorn Theater), with other productions planned for Austin,

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, and

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. In 2008, the

Melbourne Underground Film Festival The Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF) is an Austalian independent film festival featuring mostly genre, controversial, transgressive and avant garde material. History The Melbourne Underground Film Festival was formed out of disagreeme ...

in Melbourne, Australia held the first retrospective of the cinematic works of Marjoe Gortner as part of their ninth festival.

Filmography

Notes

References

External links

*
The child preacher who exposed a con
( BBC World Service ''Outlook'', March 17, 2022)
Resurrecting 'Marjoe' article
by

.
Interview with MarjoeMarjoe Gortner
Aveleyman) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gortner, Marjoe 1944 births Living people American evangelists American male film actors Male actors from Long Beach, California 20th-century American male actors People from Long Beach, California