Marjoe Gortner, 1944 – 2026

Child preacher turned 1970s oddball personality Marjoe Gortner, 82, died on Oct. 2. Raised by religious loonies (his name was a combination of Mary and Joseph, so, well, there you go), he was forced to become a bible-thumping evangelical preacher by the age of four. As a teen, he left the church to become an equally annoying hippie, and the 1972 documentary Marjoe remade him as a repentant apologist for his earlier life. He took up a second career as an actor, and was ubiquitous in the 1970s and ‘80s, appearing in The Marcus-Nelson Murders, The Gun and the Pulpit, Medical Center, Earthquake, Acapulco Gold, Viva Knievel!, Fantasy Island, The A-Team, Hotel, Falcon Crest, and other vehicles. He was married four times (including to actress Candy Clark). “I don't have any power,” Gortner said, in an apology for his early life (which, really, was one of child abuse). “And neither do any of these other guys. Hundreds of people were ‘healed’ at my crusades, but I know damn well it was nothing I was doing. People want an experience. They want to feel good, and their lives can be helped by it. But then as you start moving into the operation of the thing, you get into controlling people and power and money.”