Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner

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Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner , known as Marjoe Gortner (born January 14, 1944 in Long Beach , California ) is a retired revival preacher who first rose to fame in the 1940s and 1950s after becoming the youngest ordained preacher at the age of just four had become. He later became a household name in the 1970s with the Oscar- winning background documentary Marjoe, on the lucrative Pentecostal preaching business . The name "Marjoe" is an artificial word formed from "Maria" and "Joseph" .

Childhood and youth

When Gortner was three years old, his father, Vernon Gortner, a third-generation pastor, noticed that his son had a talent for disguise and was open to strangers in public. The parents claimed that their son received a divine vision while taking a bath. They began to teach him how to preach and studied with him the dramatic and passionate demeanor that goes with it. When he was about four years old, his parents arranged a wedding ceremony for a film crew from Paramount Studios , in which Marjoe appeared as "the youngest ordained minister in history" (Eng .: the youngest ordained priest in history). Like much in Gortner's childhood, it is no longer possible to determine with certainty who ordained him or whether he was actually ordained at all.

Until he was a teenager, he traveled as a “child prodigy” with his parents through the United States and performed at revival events. In addition to Bible passages , his parents taught him how to collect money. In addition, they sold supposedly sacred items that would protect against illness and death. Gortner later estimated that his parents had made about $ 3 million by the time he was 16. Shortly after Gortner's 16th birthday, his father disappeared with the money. Marjoe then left his mother disaffected and became the lover of an older woman in San Francisco , where he was taken. He spent the rest of his youth as a roaming hippie .

New beginning as a preacher and a crisis

When he was in his early twenties, when he was in dire financial straits, he decided to use his old skills again, returned to the old environment and performed with a charismatic stage show modeled on contemporary rock stars (especially Mick Jagger ). He made enough in six months to live on in California for the rest of the year.

At the end of the 1960s Gortner got into a crisis of conscience, especially because of the threats of condemnation that he felt compelled to do in his sermons. He then decided to do one last tour - this time for the film. Under the pretext of wanting to make a documentary about his ministry, he assembled a film team to accompany him at his revival events during 1971. Unbeknownst to anyone, however, he gave behind-the-scenes interviews in between sermons, revealing intimate details of how he and his staff proceeded. After the events, he invited the film people to his hotel room to film him counting the money he had raised that day. The resulting film " Marjoe " won an Oscar in 1972 for best documentary.

Filmmaking

After Gortner turned away from the revival scene, he tried to gain a foothold in Hollywood and the record industry. An LP called Bad, but not Evil (Gortner's self-description in the documentary) was released on Columbia Records , but sold poorly and received poor reviews. The acting career began in 1973 with a role in "The Marcus-Nelson Murders", a pilot for the series " Kojak ".

In the following years he was seen in the Oscar-winning ensemble film " Earthquake " and in the television film " Pray for the Wildcats ".

During the 1970s, Gortner tried, based on his life experiences and self-financed, to make a film about a deceitful evangelist . Filming began in New Orleans . In less than six weeks, however, he was already bankrupt. Gortner disappeared with the thousands of dollars worth of footage, most of it unused, leaving the film crew in Dallas , where the final shooting took place, to their own devices. The film was never completed, the footage disappeared.

Gortner was briefly married to Candy Clark from 1978 to 1979 .

Gortner's most successful film appearance was the role of a psychopathic drug dealer and hostage taker in Milton Katselass's screen adaptation of Mark Medoff's play "When You Comin 'Back, Red Ryder," with Peter Firth , Lee Grant , and Hal Linden .

He also appeared in several B-movies , such as "The Gun and The Pulpit" (1974), " The Island of Monsters " (1976), and " Star Crash - Stars in a Duel " (1978). In the 1980s he was seen repeatedly in "Circus of the Stars". In "Falcon Crest" (1986-1987) he played "Vince Karlotti", a corrupt medium , before he ended his film career in 1995 in the film " Wild Bill ", in which he played a preacher.

Filmography (selection)

credentials

  1. ↑ Interview with Roger Ebert, The SunTimes, September 25, 1972
  2. ^ New York Times Movies Academy Award listing
  3. ↑ IMDb
  4. ^ New York Times Movies
  5. ^ State of California. California Divorce Index, 1966-1984. Microfiche. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. p 8613.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gortner, Hugh Marjoe Ross
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gortner, Marjoe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American revival preacher, con man, and actor
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Long Beach (California)