James Darren, singer, director and teen idol, dead at 88

James Darren, a teen idol who helped ignite the 1960s surfing craze as a charismatic beach boy paired off with Sandra Dee in the hit film Gidget,died Monday. He was88.

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 had an aortic valve replacement but was too weak for the surgery.

"I always thought he would pull through, because he was so cool," his son told the entertainment trade."He was always cool."

In his long career, Darren acted, sang and built up a successful behind-the-scenes career as a television director, helming episodes of such well-known series as Beverly Hills 90210and Melrose Place.In the 1980s, he was Officer Jim Corrigan on the television cop show T.J. Hooker.

But to young movie fans of the late 1950s, he would be remembered best as Moondoggie, the dark-haired surfer boy in the smash 1959 release Gidget.Dee starred as the title character, a spunky Southern Californian who hits the beach and eventually falls in love with Moondoggie.

The rise to stardom

"I was in love with Sandra," Darren later recalled. "I thought that she was absolutely perfect as Gidget. She had tremendous charm."

The film was based on a novel that a California man, Frederick Kohner, had written about his own teenage daughter and helped spur interest in surfing one that influenced pop music, slang and even fashion.

For Darren, his success with teen fans led to a recording contract, as it did with many young actors at the time; among them were Tab Hunter and Annette Funicello. Two of Darren's singles, Goodbye Cruel Worldand Her Royal Majesty,reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. (Goodbye Cruel Worldalso appeared in Steven Spielberg's 2022 semi-autobiographical film, The Fabelmans.) Other singles included Gidgetand Angel Face.

Darren was the only Gidgetcast member who appeared in both its sequels, 1961's Gidget Goes Hawaiianand 1963's Gidget Goes to Rome.Dee was replaced by Deborah Walley in the second film and Cindy Carol in the third. (Gidgetlater became a television show, launching the career of Sally Field.)

"They had me under contract; I was a prisoner," Darren told Entertainment Weekly in 2004. "But with those lovely young ladies, it was the best prison I think I'll ever be in."

As a contract player at Columbia Studios, Darren appeared in grown-up films, too, including The Brothers Rico,Operation MeatballandThe Guns of Navarone.

Moving to directing

By the mid-'60s, when Darren appeared in For Those Who Think Youngand The Lively Set,his big-screen acting career was almost over. He appeared in just a handful of movies after the 1960s ended, last appearing in 2017's Lucky, directed by John Carroll Lynch.

But he remained active on television, appearing as a lead on the sci-fi show The Time Tunnelin the late 1960s, and doing guest spots and small recurring roles in TV shows such as The Love Boat,Hawaii Five-Oand Fantasy Island.

Darren was a series regular for four seasons of the William Shatner-starrer T.J. Hookerin the 1980s. While appearing on the show, he noticed that no director was listed for an upcoming sequence and asked if he could try out for it.

"When it was shown, I got several 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 almost two years, Darren directed episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger,Hunter,Melrose Place,Beverly Hills 90210and other series. He returned to acting in the 1990s with small roles in Melrose Placeand Star Trek:Deep Space Nine."

Darren was born James Ercolani in 1936 and grew up in South Philadelphia, not far from such fellow teen idols of the 1950s and '60s as Fabian and Frankie Avalon. Singing came easy to him, and at 14 he was appearing in local nightclubs.

"From the age of fiveor six, I knew I wanted to be an entertainer, or famous maybe," he said in a 2003 interview with the News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla. He noted that such luminaries as Eddie Fisher and Al Martino had lived in the same area as he did, "a real neighborhood. It made you feel you could be successful, too."

According to a 1958 Los Angeles Times profile, he got a break when he went to New York to get some pictures taken 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, his fan mail at the studio was running "second only to Kim Novak's.The studio now feels that the young man is ready to hit the jackpot."

Darren married his first wife, Gloria, in 1955 and together had Moret, an Inside Editioncorrespondent and former CNN anchorman. After a divorce, he married Evy Norlund, who came to the U.S. as the Danish entry in the Miss Universe contest. They had two sons, Christian and Anthony.

He was also the godfather of Nancy Sinatra's daughter A.J. Lambert. Sinatra, his For Those Who Think Youngco-star, posted The Hollywood Reporter obituary on her X page, with a broken heart emoji.