‘Gidget,’ ‘Time Tunnel,’ ‘T.J. Hooker’ Actor Was 88

James Darren, the previous teen idol and pop singer who performed the dreamy surfer Moondoggie in three Gidget films earlier than starring on tv on The Time Tunnel and T.J. Hooker, died Monday. He was 88.

Darren died in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Medical Heart in Los Angeles, his son Jim Moret, a correspondent for Inside Version, informed The Hollywood Reporter. He had entered the hospital for an aortic valve substitute however was deemed too weak to have the surgical procedure; he went residence however needed to return.

“I all the time thought he would pull by means of,” Moret stated, “as a result of he was so cool. He was all the time cool.”

Early in his profession, the dark-haired Darren obtained wonderful notices for starring in Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) — portraying the son of a hoodlum defended by Humphrey Bogart’s character in 1949’s Knock on Any Door — and for enjoying the Greek soldier Spyros Pappadimos in The Weapons of Navarone (1961).

Despite the fact that he couldn’t surf, the Philadelphia native bought the position of Moondoggie (actual identify: Jerry Matthews) reverse three actresses because the precocious Malibu teen: Sandra Dee in Gidget (1959), Deborah Walley in Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Cindy Carol in Gidget Goes to Rome (1963). 

Darren then spiraled by means of historical past because the headstrong Dr. Tony Newman, an electronics genius, on the 1966-67 ABC journey sequence The Time Tunnel, additionally starring Robert Colbert. (Tom Hanks as soon as stated it was his favourite present as a child.)

In an interview with Tom Weaver for the 2008 guide I Talked With a Zombie, Darren stated he wasn’t interested by doing tv or science fiction earlier than he agreed to a gathering with the creator of The Time Tunnel, Irwin Allen.

Allen informed him, “That is one thing it’s important to do. I do know you don’t wish to do it, however I believe you’re excellent for this position, and he satisfied me,” Darren recalled. “Irwin was one of many nice salespersons of our time. I accepted the position due to my assembly with him.”

Fifteen years later, Darren joined the William Shatner ABC motion drama T.J. Hooker in its second season, portraying Officer Jim Corrigan reverse Heather Locklear as his inexperienced companion, Stacy Sheridan.

Darren directed for the primary time in 1986 as an emergency fill-in throughout the remaining season of T.J. Hooker, and he went to helm episodes of Hunter, Silk Stalkings, Melrose Place, Werewolf, The A-Crew and Beverly Hills, 90210.

He additionally performed the rich Tony Marlin on Fox’s Melrose Place, on which he reunited with Locklear.

Darren’s greatest splash as a singer got here with the Gloria Shayne-written “Goodbye Merciless World,” which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart in 1961. (Darren carried out a model of the tune, a few man whose coronary heart is damaged by a “imply, fickle lady,” on an episode of The Donna Reed Present that yr.)

He cracked the highest 10 once more in 1962 with “Her Royal Majesty,” written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. And within the early ’70s, he sang and performed the straight man in a lounge act with comedian Buddy Hackett.

Darren revived his singing profession within the late ’90s when he appeared on a number of episodes of the syndicated sequence Star Trek: Deep Area 9 because the holographic lounge singer Vic Fontaine, a job he referred to as “some of the satisfying” he ever performed.

A number of of his Frank Sinatra-styled performances have been recorded for the 1999 album This One’s From the Coronary heart. 

After a few years out of the limelight, Darren made an impression because the husband of a bar proprietor in Harry Dean Stanton‘s remaining movie, Fortunate (2017).

James William Ercolani was born on June 8, 1936. Rising up on South tenth Avenue in South Philadelphia, he was impressed by one other Philly native, Eddie Fisher, to change into a singer and actor, and he commuted to New York to check performing with Stella Adler.

Whereas within the metropolis, the proprietor of a images store related him to Columbia Photos expertise scout Joyce Selznick (David O. Selznick’s niece), and he went on to signal a contract with the studio.

Darren made his movie debut as a highschool senior and gang member reverse Robert Blake within the crime drama Rumble on the Docks (1956), then adopted with roles in Operation Mad Ball, The Brothers Rico and The Tijuana Story in 1957 and Gunman’s Stroll in ’58. 

The Gidget films made him extraordinarily well-liked with younger girls. 

“The defining second was once I was at a studio in San Francisco and phrase bought out that I used to be there,” he recalled in a 2015 interview with Los Angeles journal. “1000’s of women have been screaming out entrance. After I needed to depart the constructing, they tackled me to the bottom and pulled items of my hair out. The police needed to rescue me and took me to the roof till issues settled down.”

To land the Gidget gig, Darren needed to persuade the producers that he might carry a tune. “They have been going to make use of anyone else’s voice, however I informed them I might sing,” he stated. “We went into one of many soundstages with a piano participant and I sang the music they usually stated, ‘He can do it.’ Then they put me on their label, Colpix.”

Darren additionally was heard performing in All of the Younger Males (1960), Diamond Head (1962), Beneath the Yum Yum Tree (1963) and For These Who Assume Younger (1964).

He sang “Nearly in Your Arms” on the 1959 Academy Awards and “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” on the 1964 Oscar telecast; carried out as Yogi Bear in a 1964 animated movie; and did a quantity on a 1965 episode of The Flintstones.

He additionally performed the very best pal reverse Sal Mineo in The Gene Krupa Story (1959), starred as a automotive mechanic in The Vigorous Set (1964) and ventured to Italy to topline Venus in Furs (1969) with Barbara McNair.

Darren was married to childhood sweetheart Gloria Terlitsky from 1955 till their 1958 divorce and to Evy Norlund, a former Miss Denmark, from 1960 till his loss of life. He lived for many years in a house on Kimridge Highway in Beverly Ridge Estates that had been owned by Audrey Hepburn.

Along with his spouse and Moret, survivors embody his different sons, Christian and Anthony; grandchildren Amanda, Carly, Matthew, Natalie and Nicholas; and goddaughter A.J. Lambert, daughter of Nancy Sinatra.

Through the years, Darren encountered many followers of his music, a few of them surprising.

“I used to be in a pizza store at some point with a pal of mine. I heard this bike pull up, and in walked Bruce Springsteen in his little bike cap, like Brando wore in The Wild One — I assume he left his helmet exterior,” he recalled in his chat with Weaver. “I stated, ‘Oh, I gotta go say hello to him.’

“I walked as much as him and stated, ‘Hello, I don’t wish to interrupt you, however my identify is James Darren. I simply wish to inform you I’m an enormous fan. I really like all of your stuff.’ And he stated, ‘James Darren? I purchased “Goodbye Merciless World” in Freehold, New Jersey.’ Isn’t that candy?”

Duane Byrge contributed to this report.