You couldn’t have grown up in the 70’s and ’80s, watching a lot of TV and movies, and not know at least the face of Marjoe Gortner. My first memory of his work was Earthquake (1974), which happened to be his first feature film that he acted in, which he turned out to be not so nice of a guy. But then between Food of the Gods (1976), Starcrash (1978), and Mausoleum (1983), and that crazy curly hair, he was always memorable. But sadly, it was announced that he had passed away at the age of 82.
Gortner had a very unusual upbringing, be a child evangelist at the ripe age of 4 years old and eventually had an Oscar winning documentary made on his life. But once he got into acting, his contributions to helping people and charities never stopped. Some of his performances were a bit over the top, but that probably came from Gortner’s own over the top personality. But no matter what, he always gave us entertainment. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family during this difficult time. Gone, but not forgotten.
