TV minister Gene Scott, part of the scene in downtown Los Angeles for decades, has died of cancer. The AP story says that Scott, 75, was a "shaggy-haired, cigar-smoking televangelist whose eccentric religious broadcasts were beamed around the world." We noted back in September that Scott was entering UCLA for treatments he had eschewed while praying that God would heal his spreading cancer. More AP:

Scott's church, a Protestant congregation of more than 15,000 members, raised millions of dollars through round-the-clock Internet and satellite TV broadcasts, where he would demand of viewers: "Get on the telephone!'' to donate...

Scott, the son of a traveling preacher, had a lavish lifestyle that included a chauffeured limousine, contact with political bigwigs and, he claimed, 300 horses. But he also spent lavishly on charity. After a fire badly damaged the Los Angeles Central Library, he organized a telethon that raised $2 million. In 2002, Scott gave $20,000 to save the Museum in Black from eviction. The museum has some 5,000 items from the slave and civil rights eras.

His flock gathers downtown at the once-grand United Artists Theatre on South Broadway.

* Wil Wheaton: "For pure entertainment value, not even Wally George could beat this guy. You damn kids today probably don't watch UHF television, but when I was a kid, my friends and I would stay up late at night and watch this guy through the static on channel 56 or 62 or whatever, and just wonder what the hell was going on."