Gene Scott, the shaggy-haired, cigar chomping televangelist whose eccentric religious broadcasts were beamed around the world, died Monday of a stroke. He was 75.

Scott’s Los Angeles University Cathedral, 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.

His nightly talk show and Sunday morning church services ran on radio and television stations in about 180 countries.

Scott would deliver complex sermons on biblical languages to make points about the meaning of faith. But he also spoke about current events, sometimes lacing his sermons with profanity.

“Iraq is a threat to the world,” he said in a 2003 speech posted on his Web site. “So kick the hell out of ’em, George.”

Recognizable by his mane of white hair and scruffy beard, Scott never stuck to a conventional format in his talk show. He sometimes smoked on the show and once wore glasses with eyes pasted on them. He considered homosexuality and other sexual issues to be matters of personal choice, and did not condemn them, unlike some other televangelists.

Scott, the son of a traveling preacher, had a lavish lifestyle that included a chauffeured limousine, contact with political bigwigs and, he said, 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.