James Darren, the teenager idol who famously performed dreamy surfer Moondoggie in the “Gidget” movies of the Nineteen Fifties and Nineteen Sixties and segued into roles behind the digicam, has died. He was 88.
Darren died Monday in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Medical Middle in Los Angeles, in accordance with an announcement posted on the actor’s official web site.
His son Jim Moret, a chief correspondent for “Inside Version,” mentioned that his father entered the hospital for an aortic valve substitute however was deemed too weak to have the surgical procedure. He went house however needed to return, the assertion mentioned.
Darren rose to fame enjoying Jeffrey “Moondoggie” Matthews in 1959’s surf basic “Gidget” with Sandra Dee and within the 1961 sequel “Gidget Goes Hawaiian.” Dee was changed by Deborah Walley within the second movie and Cindy Carol within the third, 1963’s “Gidget Goes to Rome.” The unique movie, which was shot in Malibu amid Southern California’s nascent surf scene, was tailored right into a TV sequence in 1965 that launched Sally Subject’s profession because the titular character.
“Sandra Dee, I cherished. I’d have [dated her], however she was 17 [Darren was 20]. She had a really protecting mother. When she and I appeared on Sally Jessy Raphael’s discuss present collectively [in 1991], I advised her I used to be in love together with her, and she or he mentioned, ‘Why didn’t you inform me then?,’” he advised The Instances in 2019.
Darren, who didn’t star within the TV sequence, was the one solid member to seem in each movie sequels. His character, a frisky college-student-turned-surf-bum who caught Gidget’s eye, obtained his nickname “as a result of he made love by the moon and he was a canine!” Darren advised The Instances in 2004. By the way, Darren had “by no means surfed” in his life earlier than starring within the movies, however discovered the way to stand on a board and trip a small wave.
Darren was signed to Columbia Photos in 1958 and, below contract there, he first started singing professionally within the “Gidget” movies and topped the pop charts with the songs “Goodbye Merciless World” and “Her Royal Majesty.”
He additionally starred in “Star Trek: Deep Area 9,” performed Officer Jim Corrigan in “T.J. Hooker” and the hip scientist Dr. Tony Newman within the 1966-67 ABC sequence “The Time Tunnel.” He appeared within the Oscar-winning 1961 journey “The Weapons of Navarone” and the 1960 drama “Let No Man Write My Epitaph.” Darren went on to have a profitable profession directing tv sequence, together with “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Melrose Place” and “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
Earlier than “Gidget,” the Philadelphia-born actor studied performing with Stella Adler in New York and appeared within the movies “Operation Mad Ball” and “Gunman’s Stroll.” He additionally starred in 1964’s “For These Who Assume Younger” with Frank Sinatra’s daughter, Nancy Sinatra, and later turned godfather to her daughter A.J. Lambert.
Sinatra paid tribute Monday to Darren on X, writing that “Certainly one of my dearest, closest associates in all of the world, of all my life has handed away.” She additionally wished Darren “a quick & stunning journey by the Universe & past.”
“Godspeed, candy Jimmy. My coronary heart is torn however full of affection for Evy, Christian, Anthony & Jimmy Jr,” she tweeted.
Born James Ercolani on June 8, 1936, Darren was a second-generation American of Italian descent. He knew by age 14 that he wished to get into showbiz and started singing in nightclubs along with his father in Philadelphia and New Jersey. An opportunity encounter in New York with film producer Joyce Selznick, the niece of legendary “Gone With the Wind” producer David O. Selznick, led to his function in “Gidget” and the youthful Selznick managing him.
“I believe being below contract was thrilling. I preferred that. It’s job safety, however we have been groomed and cared for. Joyce Selznick, she was actually nice. She cherished me. She actually took nice care of me like a sister would,” he advised The Instances.
Darren is survived by three sons, Jim, Christian and Anthony, and his second spouse, Evy Norlund.
