Marjoe Gortner

About Marjoe Gortner

Who is it?: Actor, Producer, Soundtrack
Birth Day: January 14, 1944
Birth Place:  Long Beach, California, United States
Occupation: Christian revivalist, actor
Years active: 1957–1995
Spouse(s): Candy Clark (1978–79; divorced)

Marjoe Gortner

Marjoe Gortner was born on January 14, 1944 in  Long Beach, California, United States, is Actor, Producer, Soundtrack. In his early career as the 4-year-old "World's Youngest Ordained Minister," Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner became a 'Miracle Child' extraordinaire. Preaching gospel from memory and performing faith healings, he drew capacity crowds as he barnstormed throughout the Bible Belt. Marjoe (the name a combination of "Mary" and "Joseph") eventually became disillusioned with what he considered a huge deception and withdrew from the scene entirely during his teen years. But his God-given talents for drawing an audience and public speaking were to be put to good use later on.After singing with a rock band, he felt a compulsion to act. The amazing documentary Marjoe (1972), based on his life as a fake evangelist, introduced the public to a new and profoundly hypnotic performer. Marjoe's potent roles in the TV projects Kojak: The Marcus-Nelson Murders (1973) and The Gun and the Pulpit (1974) capitalized on this off-centre flamboyance and showed off his obvious potential. The extremely positive reviews here helped catapult him into films. Unfortunately, most of them, promising as they must have seemed at the time -- Earthquake (1974), The Food of the Gods (1976), Viva Knievel! (1977), and When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979) -- went on to become dismal failures, and his quest for stardom never materialized. Marjoe stumbled through some more films in the 80s, but even he, with his charismatic powers, couldn't save himself from coming off badly in such drivel as Mausoleum (1983) and Hellhole (1985) and his career sank into oblivion. Though his work as an actor has grown faint with time, Marjoe will at the very least be remembered as the man who blew the whistle on evangelism. Who knows? Knowing Marjoe, there is still time for a second coming.
Marjoe Gortner is a member of Actor

Does Marjoe Gortner Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Marjoe Gortner is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020).

🎂 Marjoe Gortner - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

Currently, Marjoe Gortner is 80 years, 10 months and 7 days old. Marjoe Gortner will celebrate 81rd birthday on a Tuesday 14th of January 2025. Below we countdown to Marjoe Gortner upcoming birthday.

Days
Hours
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Popular As Marjoe Gortner
Occupation Actor
Age 80 years old
Zodiac Sign Aquarius
Born January 14, 1944 ( Long Beach, California, United States)
Birthday January 14
Town/City  Long Beach, California, United States
Nationality United States

🌙 Zodiac

Marjoe Gortner’s zodiac sign is Aquarius. According to astrologers, the presence of Aries always marks the beginning of something energetic and turbulent. They are continuously looking for dynamic, speed and competition, always being the first in everything - from work to social gatherings. Thanks to its ruling planet Mars and the fact it belongs to the element of Fire (just like Leo and Sagittarius), Aries is one of the most active zodiac signs. It is in their nature to take action, sometimes before they think about it well.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Marjoe Gortner was born in the Year of the Monkey. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Monkey thrive on having fun. They’re energetic, upbeat, and good at listening but lack self-control. They like being active and stimulated and enjoy pleasing self before pleasing others. They’re heart-breakers, not good at long-term relationships, morals are weak. Compatible with Rat or Dragon.

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Biography/Timeline

1944

Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner was born in 1944 in Long Beach, California, into a family with a long evangelical heritage. The name "Marjoe" is a portmanteau of the biblical names "Mary" and "Joseph". His father Vernon was a third-generation Christian evangelical minister who preached at revivals. His mother, 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 that the boy had received a vision from God during a bath, and he started preaching. Marjoe later said this was a fictional story that his parents forced him to repeat. He claimed they compelled him to do this 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.

1951

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

1960

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

1970

He became a Celebrity again during the 1970s when he starred in Marjoe (1972), a behind-the-scenes documentary about the lucrative Business of Pentecostal preaching. This won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Film. This documentary now is noted as one of the most vehement criticisms of Pentecostal preaching.

1973

He began his acting career with a featured role in The Marcus-Nelson Murders, the 1973 pilot for the Kojak TV series. In 1974 he made several appearances in film and television. In the disaster film Earthquake he was Sgt. Jody Joad, a psychotic grocery manager-turned-National Guardsman, 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 on ABC.

1979

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.

1980

In the early 1980s Gortner hosted the short-lived reality TV series, Speak Up, America. He appeared frequently in the 1980s Circus of the Stars specials. He also played a terrorist preacher in a second-season episode of Airwolf, and appeared on Falcon Crest as corrupt psychic-cum-medium "Vince Karlotti" (1986–87). His last role was as a preacher in the western Wild Bill (1995).

2008

In 2008, the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in Melbourne, Australia held the first retrospective of the cinematic works of Marjoe Gortner as part of their ninth festival.

2010

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 and has since been performed in New York (the Soho Playhouse), Los Angeles, Philadelphia (the 2011 NET Festival), and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (the Kelly Strayhorn Theater), with other productions planned for Austin, Chicago, and Minneapolis.

2013

Unbeknownst to everyone involved – including, at one point, his father – he 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 him while counting the money he had collected during the day, later in his hotel room. The resulting film, Marjoe, won the 1972 Academy Award for best documentary.

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