Marjoe Gortner (born January 14, 1944 in Long Beach, California) is a former evangelical minister who first gained a certain fame in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s when he became the youngest ordained preacher at the age of four, and then outright notoriety in the 1970s when he starred in an Oscar-winning, behind-the-scenes documentary about the lucrative business of Pentecostal preaching. The name "Marjoe" is a combination of the names "Mary" and "Joseph". January 14 is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Nickname: The International City (on flag), Friendly City (in Latin on citys seal), or the LBC Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: Country United States State California County Los Angeles County Government  - Mayor Bob Foster Area  - City  65. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In most Protestant churches, a minister is a member of the ordained clergy who leads a congregation; such a person may also be called a Pastor, Preacher, or Elder. ... Ordination is the process in which clergy become authorized by their religious denomination and/or seminary to perform religious rituals and ceremonies. ... Preacher is a colloquial term for a clergyman, in particular a local priest, pastor or Minister; one who preaches. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ...

When Marjoe was three, his father, a second generation evangelical minister, noticed his son's talent for mimicry and overall fearlessness of strangers and public settings. His parents claimed Marjoe had received a vision from God during a bath and began training him to deliver sermons, complete with dramatic gestures and emphatic lunges. By the time Marjoe was four, his parents arranged for him to perform a marriage ceremony for a film crew from Paramount studios, referring to him as "the youngest ordained minister in history." Like much in Marjoe's early life it is hard to say for sure who exactly ordained him, if his father ordained him, or if he was even ordained at all.

Until the time he was a teenager, Marjoe and his parents traveled the rural United States, holding revival meetings. As well as teaching him scriptural passages, Marjoe's parents also taught him several money-making tactics, involving the sale of supposedly "holy" articles at revivals which promised to heal the sick and dying. By the time Marjoe was sixteen, he later estimated, his family had amassed maybe three million dollars; shortly after his sixteenth birthday, Marjoe's father absconded with the money, and a disillusioned Marjoe left his mother for San Francisco, where he was taken in by and became the lover of an older woman. Marjoe spent the remainder of his teenage years as an itinerant hippie until his early twenties, when, hard pressed for money, he decided to put his old skills to work and re-emerged on the evangelical circuit with a charismatic stage-show modeled after those of contemporary rockers, most notably Mick Jagger. Marjoe made enough to take six months off every year, during which he returned to California, surviving on the previous six months' earnings. This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Sir Michael Phillip Mick Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English rock musician, actor, songwriter, record and film producer, and businessman. ...

In the late 1960s, Marjoe suffered a crisis of conscience -- in particular about the threats of damnation he felt compelled to weave into his sermons -- and resolved to make one final tour, this time on film. Under the pretense of making a documentary on the evangelical and non-denominational faiths, Marjoe assembled a documentary film crew to follow him around the Southern United States during 1971; unbeknownst to everyone else involved -- including, at one point, his father -- Marjoe gave "backstage" interviews to the filmmakers in between sermons and revivals, explaining intimate details of how he and other ministers operated. After sermons, the filmmakers were invited back to Marjoe's hotel room to tape him counting the money he collected during the day. The resulting film, Marjoe, won the 1972 Academy Award for best documentary, although the distributor refused to allow it to be screened in theatres south of Des Moines, Iowa, for fear that it would spark a backlash from The Bible Belt. A non-denominational church (usually Christian) is a religious organization which does not necessarily align its mission and teachings to an established denomination. ... Marjoe is an 1972 Academy Award winning documentary film produced and directed by Howard Smith and Sarah Kernochan about the life of evangelist Marjoe Gortner. ... This article is about the state capital of Iowa. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The approximate extent of the Bible Belt, indicated in red A Bible Belt is an area in which socially conservative Christian Evangelical Protestantism is a dominant or pervasive part of the culture. ...

After leaving the revival circuit, Gortner then attempted to break into both Hollywood and the recording industry. He cut an LP with Columbia records, entitled "Bad, but not Evil" (Gortner's description of himself in the documentary), which met with poor sales and reviews. Gortner began his acting career with a featured role in The Marcus-Nelson Murders, the 1973 pilot for the Kojak tv-series. The following year saw him featured in the disaster film Earthquake as a psychotic National Guardsman, and in the television movie Pray for the Wildcats. This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... A disaster film is a film that has an impending or ongoing disaster (e. ... Earthquake is the title of a blockbuster 1974 film that was among several successful so-called disaster movies of the 1970s that places an all-star cast in life and death situations. ... Telefilm redirects here. ... Pray for the Wildcats is a 1974 U.S. television movie originally aired on ABC. The movie was an action-drama and was directed by Robert Michael Lewis and starred William Shatner and Andy Griffith. ...

During the late 1970s, Marjoe attempted to self-finance another film, this time a pseudo-fictional drama about an evangelist con-man and based in part on his real-life experiences. The film started shooting in New Orleans, Louisiana, but went bankrupt less than 6-weeks into production. The film was never completed. A confidence trick, confidence game, or con for short, (also known as a scam) is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons (known as the mark) usually with the goal of financial or other gain. ... Nickname: Location in the State of Louisiana and the United States Coordinates: Country United States State Louisiana Parish Orleans Founded 1718 Government  - Mayor Ray Nagin (D) Area  - City  350. ... Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. ...

Gortner's most memorable film performance was as the psychopathic, hostage-taking drug dealer in Milton Katselas's 1979 screen adaptation of Mark Medoff's play When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, also starring Peter Firth, Lee Grant, and Hal Linden. Milton Katselas Milton Katselas (born December 22, 1933) in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, is an American director and famed Hollywood acting teacher at The Beverly Hills Playhouse, who has taught such stars as Jenna Elfman, George Clooney, Alec Baldwin, Giovanni Ribisi, Tom Selleck, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ted Danson, Tony Danza, Jeffrey Tambor... American playwright. ... When You Comin Back, Red Ryder? is a play by Mark Medoff. ... Peter Firth Peter Firth (born October 27, 1953 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, UK) is a British actor, well known for a variety of starring roles in film and on television from the 1970s to the 2000s. ... Lee Grant (October 31, 1927 in New York, New York) is an American theater, film and television actress, and film director who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s. ... Hal Linden (born Harold Lipshitz March 20, 1931) is an American actor and television director, best known for his portrayal of the title character in the television series Barney Miller (1975-1982). ...

Gortner reappeared a few years later, starring in several B-movies such as Starcrash and hosting an early-1980s reality TV series called Speak Up America before ending his movie career in 1995. Today he sponsors charity golf tournaments and other events. The term B-movie originally referred to a film designed to be distributed as the lower half of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters or vampires. ... Scontri Stellari Oltre la Terza Dimensione (English title Starcrash) was an Italian 1979 science fiction film. ... Reality television is a genre of television programming in which the fortunes of real life people (as opposed to fictional characters played by actors) are followed. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Marjoe Gortner at the Internet Movie Database
• Resurrecting ‘Marjoe’ article by Sarah Kernochan.
• Interview with Marjoe
• A Christian View