Jim Bakker, televangelist who co-founded

Branson, Mo. — Jim Bakker, who along with his first wife Tammy Faye built an evangelical empire around the hugely successful "The PTL Club" TV show, only to lose it all over a sex scandal and financial crimes, has died. He was 86.

The pair lived near the Missouri entertainment town of Branson and filmed their TV show "The Jim Bakker Show" there since it launched in 2003. Bakker suffered a stroke in 2020.

But it was another evangelical program that made Jim and his first wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, cultural icons - so much so that they were often skewered in the 1980s and 1990s by late-night comedians and parodied on "Saturday Night Live." A theatrical movie on their lives, "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," was released in September 2021.

At its peak in the mid-1980s, the Bakkers' ministry included not only the TV show, which drew up to 13 million nightly viewers, but also the Christian-based Heritage USA theme park and hotel in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

They caught the attention of televangelist Pat Robertson, and in 1965 launched a children's show on Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. By 1966, he was hosting "The 700 Club," a Christian talk show.

Bakker left CBN in 1972 and two years later formed the PTL Satellite Network. "The PTL Club" — PTL stands for "Praise the Lord" — became its signature show.

Sort of a Christian version of "The Tonight Show," it featured chats with guests and Christian entertainers. Bakker offered upbeat sermons and Tammy Faye - charismatic and always wearing her trademark heavy mascara - sang. Most episodes were taped at their sprawling complex just south of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Tammy Faye stuck by Bakker, often with tears running down her mascara, even as many saw his downfall as a fitting symbol of the greed and hypocrisy of the 1980s.

In 1988, Bakker was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy after an investigation of PTL's finances. He was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, though the sentence was later reduced to eight years.

Their marriage crumbled and Tammy Faye divorced Bakker in 1992, just short of their 31st anniversary, while he was still in prison. She later married Roe Messner, a building contractor whose projects included the Heritage USA theme park. Messner was convicted of bankruptcy fraud in 1995 and spent about two years in prison.

Bakker was released on parole in 1994. He married his second wife, Lori, in 1998. The couple launched "The Jim Bakker Show" on the PTL Satellite Network five years later.

The lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made the cure claim during 11 episodes in February and March of 2020.