HOLLYWOOD - Beloved televangelist Jerry Falwell has died in a Virginia hospital after colleagues found him unconscious in his office early yesterday. He was 73.
He died hours later after arriving at the hospital in "a gravely serious" condition.
Falwell had a history of heart problems but the exact cause of his death has not been confirmed. Fellow evangelists Billy Graham and Pat Robertson have been the first to pay tribute to Falwell.
Graham calls him "a close personal friend for many years," adding, "We did not always agree on everything, but I knew him to be a man of God. His accomplishments went beyond most clergy of his generation."
Robertson adds, "I join with the tens of thousands of his friends to mourn the passing of this extraordinary human being."
Falwell made the headlines when he spearheaded a campaign against TV network executives at ABC following the airing of
Ellen DeGeneres' coming-out sitcom episode a decade ago.
The pastor said, "I think what Ellen is doing as the first leading actress in a primetime sitcom to announce herself as gay is clearly an effort to promote the gay lifestyle and an alternative one."
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