Televangelist and convicted fraudster Jim Bakker dies at 86

The disgraced television preacher was portrayed by Andrew Garfield in the 2021 biopic The Eyes Of Tammy Faye.

By Dennis Perkins  |  October 6, 2026 | 9:38am
Screenshot: Investigation Discovery/YouTube
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Televangelist and convicted fraudster Jim Bakker dies at 86

Jim Bakker has died. Bakker’s death was reported on social media by wife Lori yesterday. No details of the cause or circumstances of Bakker’s death have been revealed. He was 86. 

First rising to national prominence in the 1980s alongside his wife Tammy Faye as the emotional, donation-pleading host of the televised PTL (either “Praise The Lord” or “People That Love”) ministry, Bakker was charismatic enough to compete for ratings (and viewers’ cash) with fellow televangelists like Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson. At the peak of the couple’s popularity, PTL brought them untold millions, a significant portion of which went to funding the Bakker’s lavish lifestyle, infamously including air conditioned dog houses. (Their extravagance also saw detractors dub their ministry “Pass The Loot.”)

Alas, two of the deadly sins Bakker railed against brought about his very public downfall. In 1987, it was revealed that Bakker had paid $265,00 of ministry funds to former church employee Jessica Hahn to cover up their affair, leading to Bakker being kicked out of the organization he helped found. And in 1989, Bakker was sentenced to prison after being convicted of swindling followers in connection with the Bakkers’ Heritage USA theme park and resort. 

Both scandals, along with the couple’s extravagance and very public meltdowns made the Bakkers a prime target for late-night mockery, with Saturday Night Live‘s Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman memorably leading the charge. Much later, Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain played the Bakkers Michael Showalter’s 2021 comedically unflattering biopic The Eyes Of Tammy Faye. The Bakkers’ son Jay also became a preacher, albeit a very different kind, as he founded the more inclusive and liberal Revolution Church upon becoming disillusioned by his father’s many, many scandals. 

 

But you can’t keep a good Christian grifter down, as Bakker (Tammy having divorced him during his sentence in 1992) returned with a repentant attitude about his previous transgressions, new wife Lori, and a book titled I Was Wrong, where he renounced the “prosperity gospel” he’d preached for so long. Perhaps predictably, that didn’t last long, as Bakker started a new TV empire around the syndicated The Jim Bakker Show in 2003. With Lori at his side, Bakker built a new tourist development outside of Branson, Missouri, and started calling for donations from his followers once more. 

In later years, Bakker became an ardent supporter of Donald Trump’s white nationalist agenda, even going so far as to call for a civil war if Donald Trump were impeached. (Trump was, twice, but Bakker’s holy uprising failed to materialize.) Later, Bakker jumped on the anti-vaxxer train by peddling a bogus COVID-19 “cure” called the “Silver Solution” for $125 a pop before authorities shut his (and fellow modern day snake oil salesman Alex Jones’) scam down in 2020. 

 

 
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