James Darren, the actor and singer whose starring function as a California surfer within the “Gidget” movies made him one of the well-liked heartthrobs of the late Fifties and early Sixties, died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 88.
His son, Jim Moret, mentioned the reason for his dying at a hospital was congestive coronary heart failure.
Mr. Darren, a local of Philadelphia who did not surf and wasn’t even a very sturdy swimmer, was a contract participant with Columbia Footage when he was solid as an aspiring surfer in “Gidget”, who additionally participates Sandra Dee within the lead function and Cliff Robertson because the Large Kahuna, chief of a surf gang.
Launched in 1959, the movie tells the story of a highschool lady who befriends that gang in Malibu and falls in love with Mr. Darren’s character, Moondoggie. It was a success and have become one of many first indicators of the browsing craze that might quickly embody the music of the Seashore Boys and the Seashore Social gathering films.
Mr. Darren went on to play the character in two extra Gidget movies, Gidget Goes to Hawaii (starring Deborah Whalley) and Gidget Goes to Rome (starring Cindy Carroll); landed a job within the acclaimed 1961 World Warfare II drama The Weapons of Navarone; constructed a protracted profession in prime-time tv, together with a starring function within the 1966-67 time-travel sequence The Time Tunnel; and launched quite a lot of singles and albums, first as a purveyor of sunshine pop tunes and later as a lounge singer whose repertoire consisted principally of requirements.
Earlier than being solid as Moondoggie, a personality with a outstanding singing function, Mr. Darren had by no means sung professionally. Initially, the studio thought of dubbing him with another person’s voice.
“I informed them I may do it,” Mr. Darren told The Los Angeles Times in 2004. “So we went to one of many sound levels and I sang ‘Gidget.’ They mentioned, “He sings nicely,” then I did all the opposite songs.
His recording of this songthe movie’s theme track, reached quantity 41 on the Billboard pop chart; consequently, he started to juggle between a singing and performing profession.
The 2 paths will cross all through his life. In 1965, he supplied the voice of a surf-rock singer named Jimmy Darroch in episode of the animated series “The Flintstones”, and within the late Nineties he performed a holographic singer in a number of episodes of Star Trek: Deep Area 9. This half impressed him to return to the recording studio for the primary time in virtually 30 years.
James William Ercolani was born in South Philadelphia on June 8, 1936, to William Ercolani, a tailor, and Virginia (Lippiano) Ercolani.
He knew he wished to be in present enterprise from a younger age. His grandmother inspired him to sing for the neighbors for a penny. Later she would give him 1 / 4. When he was 12, his father started taking him to nightclubs the place, he recollects, he would “stand up and sing two songs.”
However what he actually wished to do was act. When he was a young person, James auditioned to review with Stella Adler in New York. After he was accepted, he took the prepare from Philadelphia twice every week.
His luck got here throughout a go to to a photographer for a headshot. The secretary requested him if he want to be in films and organized for him to satisfy Joyce Selznick, the niece of film mogul David O. Selznick. On the time, she was working in merchandising on the Columbia subsidiary Display Gems, and would later turn out to be its supervisor.
When Ms. Selznick and Mr. Darren bought into the identical elevator earlier than they met, he later recalled that Ms. Selznick saved him. She later took him to satisfy Harry Rohm, a producer and agent, and Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Footage. She secured him a seven-year contract with out a display take a look at or studying.
“I used to be like a toddler within the womb,” Mr Darren mentioned 2011 interview. “I used to be so protected. I had no worries. All the selections had been made by Joyce or the folks at Columbia Footage and I do know they’d make the very best resolution for me.”
The primary years went nicely. His first movie, the low-budget Rumble on the Docks (1956), introduced him lots of of fan letters. His efficiency in Gidget raised his profile and led to a supporting function in The Weapons of Navarone, an epic warfare movie starring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn; was a essential and business success.
However after “Gidget Goes to Rome” was launched in 1963, it was apparent that his twins’ careers had been starting to wane. The movie didn’t do nicely and he by no means had an even bigger hit than his early single Goodbye Cruel World which reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Scorching 100 in 1961.
Mr. Darren continued to obtain regular performing work by the top of the last decade, however totally on tv. His starring function in The Time Tunnel – he performed Dr. Tony Newman, certainly one of two authorities scientists misplaced in time, with every episode set in a distinct interval and infrequently throughout a key historic second – earned him a loyal cult following him, though the sequence was short-lived.
In 1970, Mr. Darren met Be Hackett in Coconut Grove, Los Angeles, and the 2 went on to work collectively in a comedy and music act for 12 years. At Mr. Hackett’s suggestion, he moved away from teenage pop tunes and started to focus extra on requirements, changing into a singer within the vein of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, whom he had lengthy admired.
“Every little thing I learn about performing stay I discovered from Buddy Hackett,” Mr. Darren mentioned in a radio interview in 2016. “He would say to me, ‘You recognize what? You might be like a romantic picture, so to talk. Sing romantic songs! What are you singing this garbage about?’
He remained lively on tv within the Eighties as a visitor star on reveals resembling Charlie’s Angels and The Love Boat and as an everyday from 1982 to 1986 on the police drama TJ Hooker, starring William Shatner . Throughout this present, he started a brand new profession as a tv director. Over the following decade, he directed episodes of a number of well-liked tv sequence, together with Melrose Place and Beverly Hills, 90210.
After working primarily as a director for 12 years, Mr. Darren was solid in a recurring function on Star Trek: Deep Area 9 as lounge singer Vic Fontaine. The recognition of the character inspired him to launch a brand new album primarily based on the songs he sings within the sequence and resume the tour. He launched two albums of requirements on the Harmony Jazz label, This One’s From the Coronary heart in 1999 and Due to You in 2001.
Mr. Darren married Gloria Terlicki in 1955 and so they divorced in 1958. Their son, Jim, is a tv journalist. In 1960 he married Evie Nordlundformer Miss Denmark.
Along with his son, Jim, he’s survived by his spouse; their sons Christian and Anthony; brother John; and 5 grandchildren.
Bernard Mockham contributed reporting.
