James Darren, a teen idol who helped ignite the surfing craze of the 1960s, paired with Sandra Dee in the hit film “Gidget.”
Darren died in his sleep at a Los Angeles hospital, his son Jim Morette confirmed to CBS News.
Moret told CBS News that Darren was admitted to the hospital last week for an aortic valve replacement, but was unable to receive it due to his strength at the time. He was then taken to the hospital again on Sunday.
“It was kind of surprising to be honest with you,” Moret told CBS News. “I mean, we knew he wasn’t feeling well, but we didn’t expect this.”
Moret said Darren was in no pain and was “able to express his love to his family.”
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” Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical film, “The Fabelmans.” Also appeared in Other singles included “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, which launched 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 major films including “The Brothers Rico,” “Operation Meatball” and “The 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 handful of movies after the late 1960s, last appearing in 2017’s “Lucky,” directed by John Carroll Lynch.
But he remained active on television, appearing as the lead in the late 1960s sci-fi show “The Time Tunnel,” and doing guest spots and small recurring roles on TV shows like “The Love Boat,” “Hawaii Five-” O” and “Fantasy Island.”
Darren was a series regular for four seasons of the 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. He noted that luminaries like Eddie Fisher and Al Martino lived in the same area as 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.
“One of my dearest, closest friends in the whole world, one of my life, has passed away,” Sinatra wrote on social media. “My daughter’s godfather, A.J. Wishing him a speedy and beautiful journey through the universe and beyond. Godspeed, sweet Jimmy. My heart is broken but full of love for Evie, Christian, Anthony and Jimmy Jr.
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