Marjoe Gortner, the former child evangelist whose life inspired an Oscar-winning documentary before he launched an eclectic Hollywood acting career in films like Earthquake and Falcon Crest, died October 2 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at age 82 from congestive heart failure.
Born Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner on January 14, 1944, in Long Beach, California, the actor spent his earliest years as a headline-grabbing ministerial prodigy. His widespread recognition grew significantly after appearances in Paramount newsreels and the syndicated newspaper feature Ripley’s Believe It or Not, which both promoted him as the World’s Youngest Minister.
At an age when other children were still figuring out how to lace up their shoes, he remarkably officiated a wedding when he was only four years old. He became a fixture of tent revivals across the United States, performing weddings and delivering theatrical sermons while his family amassed a fortune estimated at $3 million. Gortner later stated that his father disappeared with those funds shortly before he turned 16, leaving him to preach independently for survival before he quit preaching at age 16 and moved to New York to pursue an acting career.
The 1971 Documentary That Ended Preaching and Sparked Stardom
The trajectory of Gortner’s life shifted permanently in 1971 when he permitted filmmakers Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan to shadow his final revival circuit. The resulting feature, Marjoe, exposed the financial mechanisms and psychological tricks used to manipulate church congregations. Premiering at Cannes, the exposé won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1972.
In the film, Gortner candidly detailed how evangelists played audiences, offering a rare look behind the pulpit. Reviewing the release for The New York Times, critic Vincent Canby observed that the project functioned less a documentary about Marjoe’s final weeks on the Pentecostal church-and-tent circuit than a feature-length screen test for a career in show biz
. That foresight proved accurate. Armed with sudden notoriety, Gortner recorded an album titled Bad, but Not Evil in 1972, which included his versions of “I Shall Be Released” and “Lo and Behold!”, and secured a talent contract with Universal Pictures.
Roles in Earthquake, Starcrash, and Falcon Crest
Transitioning swiftly to screen acting, Gortner debuted in the 1973 television film The Marcus-Nelson Murders, directed by Joseph Sargent. The project served as the pilot for the hit CBS crime series Kojak.
His résumé quickly grew to encompass prominent disaster films, science-fiction projects, and television guest spots. In the 1974 disaster movie Earthquake, he played Jody Joad, a grocery store manager turned National Guardsman who used the catastrophic tremor to pursue Victoria Principal and exact vengeance on his tormentors. He also appeared in the 1974 film The Gun and the Pulpit.
- Earthquake (1974): Played Jody Joad, a grocery store manager and National Guardsman who uses a catastrophic tremor to target his tormentors.
- Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976): Starred alongside Lynda Carter.
- The Food of the Gods (1976): Appeared in the giant-animal horror feature.
- Viva Knievel! (1977): Appeared in the daredevil biopic.
- Starcrash (1978): Headlined the low-budget space adventure film.
- When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? (1979): Milton Katselas directed the movie featuring Gortner as a hostile, hostage-taking veteran of the Vietnam War alongside a cast that included Lee Grant, Peter Firth, Hal Linden, Anne Ramsey, Audra Lindley, and Candy Clark (who counted Gortner as one of her five husbands).
His television credits expanded across numerous famous shows throughout the decades, including appearances on Barnaby Jones, Medical Center, Police Story, Laugh-In, Fantasy Island, The A-Team, Matt Houston, Whiz Kids, Airwolf, Street Hawk, T.J. Hooker, Hotel, Otherworld, and The Six Million Dollar Man. He also briefly hosted a topical talk show called Speak Up America in 1980 alongside Jayne Kennedy and Rhonda Bates, and made appearances on talk shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Dick Cavett Show, and The Merv Griffin Show.
On television, Gortner landed a memorable recurring part during the sixth season of the CBS primetime soap opera Falcon Crest. Across 17 episodes in 1986–1987, he played Vince Karlotti, a colorful polygamist and faux psychic medium—a character that directly mirrored his own youth.
You have to go into the heavy religion in order to give people an excuse to loosen up and enjoy themselves. When I’d do a hip movement or a jump, or start walking over the backs of the seats, they’d say, ‘Hallelujah! God’s behind him!’ But if they saw Mick Jagger doing the same thing at a rock concert, that was the work of the devil.
Marjoe Gortner, via Entertainmentnow
Philanthropy and Later Endeavors with Ian Ziering
After stepping away from full-time acting following his role as a preacher in the 1995 film Wild Bill—with his acting career having cooled considerably to just five low-budget movie credits and no further television work toward the end—Gortner focused much of his energy on charitable work. He produced Circus of the Stars specials and celebrity sports invitationals that aired on CBS Saturdays and raised funds for various organizations, including the Dream Foundation and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Waterkeeper Alliance, continuing these philanthropic efforts for roughly two decades before retiring around 2012.
Actor Ian Ziering paid tribute to those efforts, writing that Gortner brought celebrities all over the world to raise money for different charities… This man raised millions and millions of dollars for different charities while providing some of the most incredible celebrity experiences of my lifetime.
Outside of his professional life, Gortner enjoyed hobbies that included motorcycling, whitewater rafting, RV travel, hiking, horseback riding, and marksmanship, and especially cherished traveling with his wife, Susan. Susan Magestro Gortner, his wife since their 2019 wedding, survives him, alongside his daughter Gigi Gortner, his son Dylan Becker, his sister Starlo Gortner-Padilla, his nephew Brian Gortner, his stepdaughters Marie Ciattini and Stella Magestro, and his step-granddaughter Liliana Ciattini.