Marjoe Gortner, the former Pentecostal child revivalist who caused a worldwide stir after the Academy Award-winning documentary ‘Marjoe’ revealed how he and his family worked the revival circuit for fame and fortune, has passed away from congestive heart failure at the age of 82.
Ordained by his father at age 4, he became a preaching sensation and traveled the country leading revival meetings.
Marjoe estimated he and his family took in $3 million before he was 16 years old, roughly $33 million or more in today’s dollars, and that his father abandoned the family and absconded with much of it when he was in his late teens.
After taking a break from revivalism, he rejoined the circuit despite not being a Christian, traveling across the country and speaking at churches purely to make a living, crafting and perfecting his showmanship, claiming that he modeled his act after the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger.
In his late 20s, he let a film crew follow him on tour, where he openly explained the tactics he and his parents used to manipulate Christians during his tent meetings to maximize profits, including how to fake speaking in tongues, how to get folks riled up in the spirit, and how to manipulate people’s emotions and put them in an emotional frenzy.
You can see a brief clip of it here.
Marjoe later became an actor, having a few small parts, and married five times.
