LOS ANGELES — James Darren, a teen idol who helped ignite the Sixties browsing craze as a charismatic seaside boy paired off with Sandra Dee within the hit movie “Gidget,” died Monday at 88.
Darren died in his sleep at a Los Angeles hospital, his son Jim Moret advised information retailers.
Moret advised The Hollywood Reporter that Darren was supposed have had an aortic valve alternative however was too weak for the surgical procedure. “I at all times thought he would pull by,” his son advised the leisure commerce, “as a result of he was so cool. He was at all times cool.”
In his lengthy profession, Darren acted, sang and constructed up a profitable behind-the-scenes profession as a tv director, helming episodes of such well-known sequence as “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place.” Within the Eighties, he was Officer Jim Corrigan on the tv cop present “T.J. Hooker.”
However to younger film followers of the late Fifties, he can be remembered finest as Moondoggie, the dark-haired surfer boy within the smash 1959 launch “Gidget.” Dee starred because the title character, a spunky Southern Californian who hits the seaside and ultimately falls in love with Moondoggie.
“I used to be in love with Sandra,” Darren later recalled. “I assumed that she was completely good as Gidget. She had large attraction.”
The movie was primarily based on a novel {that a} California man, Frederick Kohner, had written about his personal teenage daughter and helped spur curiosity in browsing — one which influenced pop music, slang and even style.
For Darren, his success with teen followers led to a recording contract, because it did with many younger actors on the time, amongst them Tab Hunter and Annette Funicello. Two of Darren’s singles, “Goodbye Merciless World” and “Her Royal Majesty,” reached the High 10 of the Billboard Scorching 100 chart. (“Goodbye Merciless World” additionally appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical movie, “The Fabelmans.” ) Different singles included “Gidget” and “Angel Face.”
Darren was the one “Gidget” solid member who appeared in each its sequels, 1961’s “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” and 1963’s “Gidget Goes to Rome.” Dee was changed by Deborah Walley within the second movie and Cindy Carol within the third. (“Gidget” later turned a tv present, launching the profession of Sally Subject. )
“That they had me underneath contract; I used to be a prisoner,” Darren advised Leisure Weekly in 2004. “However with these beautiful younger women, it was the perfect jail I feel I’ll ever be in.”
As a contract participant at Columbia Studios, Darren appeared in grown-up movies, too, together with “The Brothers Rico,” “Operation Meatball” and “The Weapons of Navarone.”
By the mid-’60s, when Darren appeared in “For These Who Suppose Younger” and “The Energetic Set,” his big-screen performing profession was virtually over. He appeared in only a handful of flicks after the Sixties ended, final showing in 2017’s “Fortunate,” directed by John Carroll Lynch.
However he remained energetic on tv, showing as a lead on the sci-fi present “The Time Tunnel” within the late Sixties, and doing visitor spots and small recurring roles in TV reveals similar to “The Love Boat,” “Hawaii 5-O” and “Fantasy Island.”
Darren was a sequence common for 4 seasons of the William Shatner-starrer “T.J. Hooker” within the Eighties. Whereas showing on the present, he seen that no director was listed for an upcoming sequence and requested if he might check out for it.
“When it was proven, I bought a number of provides to direct,” he advised the New York Every day Information. “Quickly I used to be getting so many provides to direct, I sort of gave up performing and singing.”
For nearly two years, Darren directed episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” “Hunter,” “Melrose Place,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and different sequence. He returned to performing within the Nineties with small roles in “Melrose Place” and “Star Trek, Deep House 9.”
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LOS ANGELES — James Darren, a teen idol who helped ignite the Sixties browsing craze as a charismatic seaside boy paired off with Sandra Dee within the hit movie “Gidget,” died Monday at 88.
Darren died in his sleep at a Los Angeles hospital, his son Jim Moret advised information retailers.
Moret advised The Hollywood Reporter that Darren was supposed have had an aortic valve alternative however was too weak for the surgical procedure. “I at all times thought he would pull by,” his son advised the leisure commerce, “as a result of he was so cool. He was at all times cool.”
In his lengthy profession, Darren acted, sang and constructed up a profitable behind-the-scenes profession as a tv director, helming episodes of such well-known sequence as “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Melrose Place.” Within the Eighties, he was Officer Jim Corrigan on the tv cop present “T.J. Hooker.”
However to younger film followers of the late Fifties, he can be remembered finest as Moondoggie, the dark-haired surfer boy within the smash 1959 launch “Gidget.” Dee starred because the title character, a spunky Southern Californian who hits the seaside and ultimately falls in love with Moondoggie.
“I used to be in love with Sandra,” Darren later recalled. “I assumed that she was completely good as Gidget. She had large attraction.”
The movie was primarily based on a novel {that a} California man, Frederick Kohner, had written about his personal teenage daughter and helped spur curiosity in browsing — one which influenced pop music, slang and even style.
For Darren, his success with teen followers led to a recording contract, because it did with many younger actors on the time, amongst them Tab Hunter and Annette Funicello. Two of Darren’s singles, “Goodbye Merciless World” and “Her Royal Majesty,” reached the High 10 of the Billboard Scorching 100 chart. (“Goodbye Merciless World” additionally appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical movie, “The Fabelmans.” ) Different singles included “Gidget” and “Angel Face.”
Darren was the one “Gidget” solid member who appeared in each its sequels, 1961’s “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” and 1963’s “Gidget Goes to Rome.” Dee was changed by Deborah Walley within the second movie and Cindy Carol within the third. (“Gidget” later turned a tv present, launching the profession of Sally Subject. )
“That they had me underneath contract; I used to be a prisoner,” Darren advised Leisure Weekly in 2004. “However with these beautiful younger women, it was the perfect jail I feel I’ll ever be in.”
As a contract participant at Columbia Studios, Darren appeared in grown-up movies, too, together with “The Brothers Rico,” “Operation Meatball” and “The Weapons of Navarone.”
By the mid-’60s, when Darren appeared in “For These Who Suppose Younger” and “The Energetic Set,” his big-screen performing profession was virtually over. He appeared in only a handful of flicks after the Sixties ended, final showing in 2017’s “Fortunate,” directed by John Carroll Lynch.
However he remained energetic on tv, showing as a lead on the sci-fi present “The Time Tunnel” within the late Sixties, and doing visitor spots and small recurring roles in TV reveals similar to “The Love Boat,” “Hawaii 5-O” and “Fantasy Island.”
Darren was a sequence common for 4 seasons of the William Shatner-starrer “T.J. Hooker” within the Eighties. Whereas showing on the present, he seen that no director was listed for an upcoming sequence and requested if he might check out for it.
“When it was proven, I bought a number of provides to direct,” he advised the New York Every day Information. “Quickly I used to be getting so many provides to direct, I sort of gave up performing and singing.”
For nearly two years, Darren directed episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” “Hunter,” “Melrose Place,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and different sequence. He returned to performing within the Nineties with small roles in “Melrose Place” and “Star Trek, Deep House 9.”