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LOS ANGELES -- Gene Scott, the shaggy-haired, cigar-smoking
televangelist whose eccentric religious broadcasts were beamed around
the world, has died. He was 75.
Scott died Monday after suffering a stroke, family spokesman Robert
Emmers said.
For three decades, Scott was pastor of Los Angeles University
Cathedral, a Protestant congregation of more than 15,000 members
housed in a landmark downtown building.
In the mid-1970s, Scott began hosting a nightly live television
broadcast of Bible teaching. His nightly talk show and Sunday morning
church services were aired on radio and television stations to about
180 countries around the world by his University Network.
In some of his speeches, he would use chalkboards covered with Greek
and Hebrew and deliver complex lectures on the Biblical languages to
make points about the meaning of faith.
"It's a college-level classroom in the Bible," he once said.
Scott did take stands on other controversial subjects, including the
war in Iraq, which he supported.
"Iraq is a threat to the world," he said in a 2003 Web address. "So
kick the hell out of 'em, George."
Scott was most recognizable by his mane of white hair and scruffy
beard. He also never stuck to a conventional format for his show - he
once wore glasses with eyes pasted on them and sometimes smoked on the
show. On his Web site, he simply said about himself, "What you see is
what you get."
Scott also was a philanthropist. He was involved with Rebuild LA, the
Richard Pryor Burn Foundation and the Southwest Museum. In 2002, Scott
gave $20,000 that helped save Museum in Black, which has some 5,000
items from the slave and civil rights eras, from eviction.
Born in Idaho in 1929, Scott later moved to Northern California and
earned a doctorate in philosophies of education from Stanford
University in 1957, according to his Web site. He was the author of
more than 20 books and also was a painter.
Scott is survived by his wife, Melissa.
Services were pending.
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