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 鬼头神探 (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 -- 大地震 (1974), The Food of the Gods (1976), 飞车大王 (1977), and 红赖德你几时回来？ (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 地狱窟 (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.
Former child evangelist.
His name is a combination of "Mary" and "Joseph", a fact his parents exploited during the child evangelist period of his life.
As a child evangelist Gortner performed his first marriage ceremony at the age of 4.
Billed simply as Marjoe, hit #109 on Billboard's "Bubbling Under" singles chart in 1972 with "Lo and Behold" (Chelsea 0107).
Since childhood, he studied a number of musical instruments - drums, saxophone, organ, guitar, accordion and piano. Before hitting the road to film Marjoe (1972), he had a rock band in L.A. - and, on the strength of the movie's success and his musical ability, he recorded a solo album for RCA Records in 1973. Its title was Marjoe's description of himself: "Bad, But Not Evil".
Started out at a young age as as a preacher (evangelist) and, coincidentally, his last role (to date) was as a preacher in the film Wild Bill (1995).
He sponsors charity golf tournaments and others events [2005]
Considered an unorthodox choice at the time for the role of "Jody Joad" in 大地震 (1974), what won him the role was his persona in Marjoe (1972).
He is one of the Case Studies in "God is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens, along with Joseph Smith.
The March 10, 1982, issue of Variety announced the film "The Glory Road", directed by Marjoe Gortner starring 加里·布塞, 达布尼·柯尔曼, and 玛丽·克罗斯拜, started filming February 1, 1982, filming suspended February 8, 1982. The film went bankrupt and was never completed.