Last Updated on 03/09/2024 by Arun jain
LOS ANGELES – James Darren, a teen idol who helped spark the surfing craze of the 1960s, teamed up with Sandra Dee in the hit film “Gidget.”
Darren died in his sleep at a Los Angeles hospital, his son Jim Moret told news outlets.
Moret told The Hollywood Reporter that Darren was supposed to have an aortic valve replacement but was too weak for surgery. “I always thought it would pass,” his son told Entertainment Business, “because he was so cool.” He was always cool. “…
In his long career, Darren acted, sang and produced a successful behind-the-scenes career as a television director, directing episodes of such well-known series as “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place.” In the 1980s, he was Officer Jim Corrigan on the television cop show “TJ Hooker”.
But for young movie fans of the late 1950s, he will be best remembered as Moondogy, the dark-haired surfer boy in the 1959 smash release “Gidget.” Dee starred as the title character, a spunky Southern Californian who arrives at the beach and eventually falls in love with Moondoggi.
“I was in love with Sandra,” Darren later recalled. “I thought she was absolutely perfect as Gidget. She had tremendous charm. “
The film was based on a novel that a California man, Frederick Kohner, wrote about his own teenage daughter and helped spark interest in surfing—which also influenced pop music, slang, and fashion.
For Darren, his success with young fans led to a recording contract, as did many young artists at the time, including Tab Hunter and Annette Funicello. Two of Darren’s singles, “Goodbye Cruel World” and “Her Royal Majesty,” reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. (“Goodbye Cruel World” also appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical film, “The Fabelmans.”) Other singles include “Gidget” and “Angel Face”.
Darren was the only “Gidget” cast member to appear in both of its sequels, 1961’s “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” and 1963’s “Gidget Goes to Rome.” Dean was replaced by Deborah Whalley in the second film and by Cindy Carroll in the third. (“Gidget” later became a television show, launching Sally Field’s career.)
“They had me under contract; I was a prisoner,” Darren told Entertainment Weekly in 2004. “But with those beautiful girls, I think it was the best prison I’d ever been in.”
As a contract player at Columbia Studios, Darren appeared in grown-up films including “The Brothers Rico,” “Operation Meatball” and “Guns of Navarone.”
By the mid-’60s, when Darren appeared in “For Those Who Think Young” and “The Lively Set,” his big screen acting career was almost over. He appeared in only a few movies after the late 1960s, appearing last 2017’s “Lucky,” Directed by John Carroll Lynch.
But he remained active on television, appearing as the lead in sci-fi shows “The Time Tunnel” in the late 1960s, and had guest spots and small recurring roles on TV shows such as “The Love Boat,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “Fantasy Island.”
Darren was a series regular for four seasons William Shatner-starrer “TJ Hooker” in the 1980s. While appearing on the show, he noticed that no director was listed for the upcoming sequence and asked if he could try out for it.
“When it was shown, I got a lot of offers to direct,” he told the New York Daily News. “Soon I was getting so many offers to direct, I kind of gave up acting and singing.”
For nearly two years, Darren directed episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” “Hunter,” “Melrose Place,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and other series. He returned to acting in the 1990s with small roles in “Melrose Place” and “Star Trek, Deep Space Nine”.
Darren was born James Ercolani in 1936 and grew up in South Philadelphia, not far from fellow teenagers of the 1950s and 60s like Fabian and Frankie Avalon. Singing came easily to him, and by age 14 he was appearing in local nightclubs.
“From the age of 5 or 6 I knew I wanted to be an entertainer, or maybe famous,” he said in a 2003 interview with the News-Press of Fort Myers, Florida. As bright as he noted Eddie Fisher And Al Martino lived in the same area he did, “a real neighborhood. It made you feel that you too can succeed.
According to a 1958 Los Angeles Times profile, he got his break when he went to take some pictures in New York and the photographer’s office put him in touch with a talent scout.
He was soon signed by Columbia Pictures, and the newspaper said that after a few appearances, the studio was getting “second only to Kim Novak” in fan mail. … The studio now feels that the young man is ready to hit the jackpot.”
Darren married his first wife, Gloria, in 1955 and had Moret, an “Inside Edition” correspondent and former CNN anchorman. After the divorce he married Evie Norlund, who came to the US as the Danish entry in the Miss Universe pageant. They had two sons, Christian and Anthony.
He was also godfather to Nancy Sinatra’s daughter AJ Lambert. Sinatra, his “For Those Who Think Young” co-star, posted an obituary of The Hollywood Reporter on his X page, along with a broken heart emoji.
Post James Darren, ‘Gidget’ Teen Idol, Singer and Director, Dies at 88 appeared first NBC News.