James Darren, a teen idol who helped spark the surfing craze of the 1960s as a charismatic beach boy paired with Sandra Dee in the hit film “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 that Darren was hospitalized last week for an aortic valve replacement, but was unable to receive one due to his strength at the time. He was rushed to the hospital on Sunday.
“It was kind of surprising to be honest with you,” Moret told CBS News. “I mean, we knew he wasn’t well, but we didn’t expect it.”
Moret said Darren was not in pain and was “able to express his love to his family.”
During his long career, Darren built 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.”
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But to young movie fans of the late 1950s, he will be best remembered as Mundogi, the dark-haired surfer boy in the 1959 release “Gidget.” Dee starred as the title character, a spunky Southern Californian who hits the beach and eventually falls in love with Mundogi.
“I fell 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 an interest in surfing — which influenced pop music, slang and even fashion.
For Darren, his success with teenage fans led to a recording contract, as did 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 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Goodbye Cruel World” also appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical film “The Fablemans”. Other singles included “Gidget” and “Angel Face”.
Darren was the only “Gidget” cast member to appear in both the 1961 “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” and 1963 “Gidget Goes to Rome” sequels. D was replaced by Deborah Walley in the second film and Cindy Carroll in the third film. “Gidget” later became a television show, launching Sally Field’s career.
“They put me under contract; I was a prisoner,” Darren told Entertainment Weekly in 2004. “But with those beautiful young women, I think it was the best prison.”
As a contract player at Columbia Studios, Darren also appeared in grown-up 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 career was almost over. He appeared in only a handful of movies after the 1960s ended, most recently in 2017’s “Lucky,” directed by John Carroll Lynch.
But he remained active on television, starring in the late 1960s sci-fi show “The Time Tunnel” and guest spots and small recurring roles on TV shows such as “The Love Boat,” “Hawaii Five . and “Fantasy Island.”
Darren was a four-season series regular on the William Shatner-starring “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.
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“When it was shown, I got several offers to direct,” he told the New York Daily News. “Soon I was getting so many offers for directing, I kind of gave up 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 James Ercolani was born in 1936 and grew up in South Philadelphia, not far from fellow teen idols of the 1950s and 60s like Fabian and Frankie Avalon. Singing came easy to him and at the age of 14 he appeared in a local nightclub.
“From the age of 5 or 6 I knew I wanted to be an entertainer, or be 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 neighborhood as him, “a real neighborhood. It made you feel like you could be successful too.”
According to a 1958 Los Angeles Times profile, he got a break when he went to New York to take some pictures, and the photographer’s office put him in touch with a talent scout.
She was soon signed by Columbia Pictures, and the newspaper said that after a few appearances, her fan mail at the studio was running “second only to Kim Novak”. … The studio now thinks the youngster 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 anchorman. After the divorce he married Evie Norlund, who came to the United States as the Danish entry in the Miss Universe pageant. They had two sons, Christian and Anthony.
He was also godfather to AJ Lambert, daughter of Nancy Sinatra.
“One of my dearest, closest friends, one of my life has passed away,” Sinatra wrote on social media. “My daughter’s godfather, AJ. Wishing her a speedy and beautiful journey into the universe and beyond. Godspeed, sweet Jimmy. My heart is torn but full of love for Evie, Christian, Anthony and Jimmy Jr.”