Richard Rossi is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, talk radio host, musician, and former evangelical minister. Among Rossi's projects are the film Canaan Land which contained five of Rossi's songs that made the song list for Oscar consideration, Baseball's Last Hero: 21 Clemente Stories, a biopic on the life of Roberto Clemente and two films about evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. In 1995 Rossi went on trial for the attempted murder of his wife. She recanted her original identification of Rossi as her attacker and espoused his innocence. The case ended in a mistrial and was front-page news in Rossi's adopted hometown of Pittsburgh and was widely covered as something of a cause célèbre by syndicated television news programs. Rossi eventually was acquitted of attempted murder but pleaded no contest to an aggravated assault though he and his wife maintained his innocence.Thirty years later, Rossi was exonerated. Early years Rossi's father was a professional jazz guitarist in West View, Pennsylvania; the son followed in his father's footsteps, playing the guitar on stage at age 7. As a child, Rossi was fascinated with Pittsburgh-based faith healer Kathryn Kuhlman. After one of his father's hospitalizations for manic depression, Rossi landed in a surrogate family led by an evangelist who immersed him in Pentecostal preaching and outreach. After a drug overdose, Rossi became a born-again Christian and toured as a rock and roll preacher, usually in tandem with songwriting partner Johnny Walker, playing gospel rock. Rossi and his songwriting partner Walker were featured on The 700 Club. Pennsylvania ministries Rossi moved to Lynchburg, Virginia at age 18 to study at Liberty University, where he earned a bachelor's and master's degree in biblical studies. His second church, created informally with ministry partner Jack Sims, was called "Matthew's Party," the name taken from the biblical story about Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners at the home of Matthew, the gospel writer. In 1986, Rossi started First Love, a charismatic church. He rented movie theaters and showed films as an evangelistic outreach. Dramatic faith healings allegedly occurred. The healing services, called "Healing Clinics," grew from 200 to 2000. Rossi filmed the healings and co-produced a documentary on faith healing and exorcism in 1992 entitled Quest for Truth. The program first aired during the fall 1993 season on WPGH-TV 53 and WPTT-TV 22. In 1988, Rossi tried and failed to change both the name of the Church