James Darren, the teen idol who helped save surfing in the 1960s as the charismatic beach boy paired with Sandra Dee in the hit movie “Gidget,” died Monday at age 88.
Darren died in his sleep at a Los Angeles hospital, his son Jim Moret confirmed to CBS News.
Moret told CBS News Darren was admitted to the hospital last week for aortic valve replacement, but was unable to receive due to strength at the time. He was then taken back to the hospital on Sunday.
“It was a shock to be honest with you,” Moret told CBS News. “I mean, we knew he wasn’t well, but we didn’t expect this.”
Moret said Darren was not hurt and that he “can express his love to his family.”
In his long career, Darren acted, sang and built a successful career behind the scenes as a television director, directing episodes of well-known series such as “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place.” In the 1980s, he played Officer Jim Corrigan on the television cop show “TJ Hooker.”
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But to young movie fans of the late 1950s, he will be best remembered as Moondoggie, the dark-haired surfer boy in the 1959 smash release “Gidget.” Dee stars as the title character, a spunky Southern Californian who hits the beach and ends up falling in love with Moondoggie.
“I was in love with Sandra,” Darren later recalled. “I thought she was absolutely perfect as Gidget. She had such incredible charm.”
The film is based on a novel written by a Californian, Frederick Kohner, about his own teenage daughter and helped spur an interest in surfing – one that influenced pop music, slang and even fashion.
For Darren, success with teenage fans led to a recording contract, as it did with many young actors at the time, among them Tab Hunter and Annette Funicello. Two of Darren’s singles, “Goodbye Cruel World” and “Her Royal Majesty,” reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Goodbye Cruel World” also appears 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 the sequels, “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” in 1961 and “Gidget Goes to Roma” in 1963. Dee was replaced by Deborah Walley in the second film and Cindy Carol in the third. “Gidget” later became a television show, launching Sally Field’s career.
“They have a contract, I’m a prisoner,” Darren told Entertainment Weekly in 2004. “But with these beautiful girls, it’s the best prison I’ll ever be in.”
As a contract player at Columbia Studios, Darren appeared in adult films, including “The Brothers Rico,” “Operation Meatball” and “The Guns of Navarone.”
In the mid-’60s, when Darren appeared in “For the Young Thinkers” and “The Lively Set,” his big screen acting career was almost over. He appeared in several films after the 1960s, most recently appearing in 2017’s “Lucky,” directed by John Carroll Lynch.
But he remained active on television, appearing as the lead in the sci-fi show “The Time Tunnel” in the late 1960s, and doing guest spots and small roles in TV shows such as “The Love Boat,” “Hawaii Five-O” and “Fantasy Island.”
Darren was a series regular for four seasons from 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 audition.
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“When it was shown, I got several offers to direct it,” he told the New York Daily News. “Soon I got many offers to direct, I turned down acting and singing.”
For almost 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.”
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Darren was born James Ercolani in 1936 and grew up in South Philadelphia, not far from the youth idols of the 1950s and 60s as Fabian and Frankie Avalon. Singing came easily to him, and at the age of 14 he was performing in a local nightclub.
“From the age of 5 or 6 I knew I wanted to be an entertainer, or maybe famous,” he said in an interview with the News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida in 2003. He noted that figures like Eddie Fisher and Al Martino had lived in the same area as him, “a real environment. You also feel that you can succeed.”
According to a 1958 Los Angeles Times profile, he got his break when he went to New York to shoot some pictures and the photographer’s office made contact with talent scouts.
He was immediately signed by Columbia Pictures, and the newspaper said that after a few appearances, fan mail at the studio was running “second only to Kim Novak. … The studio now feels that the young man is ready to hit the jackpot. .”
Darren married his first wife, Gloria, in 1955 and together they had Moret, an “Inside Edition” correspondent and former CNN anchor. After the divorce, he married Evy Norlund, who came to the US as the Danish entry in the Miss Universe pageant. They have two sons, Christian and Anthony.
He is also the godfather of Nancy Sinatra’s daughter, AJ Lambert.
“One of my dearest and closest friends in the whole world, in my lifetime has passed away,” Sinatra wrote on social media. “Godfather to my daughter, AJ. Wishing you a quick & beautiful journey through the Universe & beyond. Godspeed, sweet Jimmy. My heart is broken but full of love for Evy, Christian, Anthony & Jimmy Jr.”
