Gidget and T.J. Hooker Star Passes Away at 88

James Darren, the actor who became a symbol of the 1960s surfing era through his role as a charming beach boy in the film Gidget, has passed away at the age of 88, his family has confirmed.

Darren died peacefully in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for heart issues in the cardiac unit.

His son, Jim Moret, told The Hollywood Reporter that the actor initially went to the hospital for an aortic valve replacement but was deemed too weak for the surgery. Despite being discharged and sent home, he was later readmitted as health concerns escalated.

“I always thought he would pull through,” Moret shared with reporters. “Because he was so cool. He was always cool.”

Throughout his extensive career, Darren was an actor, singer, and successful television director. He helmed episodes of popular series such as Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. In the 1980s, he portrayed Officer Jim Corrigan on the TV cop show T.J. Hooker.

However, to fans from the late 1950s, Darren is best remembered as Moondoggie, the dark-haired surfer boy in the 1959 blockbuster Gidget. Sandra Dee starred as Gidget, a Southern Californian who falls in love with Darren’s character.

“I was in love with Sandra,” Darren later reminisced. “I thought she was absolutely perfect as Gidget. She had tremendous charm.”

Based on a novel by Frederick Kohner about his teenage daughter, the film spurred interest in surfing, influencing pop music, slang, and fashion.

Darren’s popularity with teen fans led to a recording contract. His singles “Goodbye Cruel World” and “Her Royal Majesty” reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with “Goodbye Cruel World” even making an appearance in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 film, The Fabelmans.

Darren was the only Gidget cast member to appear in both sequels, 1961’s Gidget Goes Hawaiian and 1963’s Gidget Goes to Rome. Dee was replaced by Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol in the sequels.

“They had me under contract; I was a prisoner,” Darren told Entertainment Weekly in 2004. “But with those lovely young ladies, it was the best prison I think I’ll ever be in.”

As a contract player at Columbia Studios, Darren also appeared in adult-targeted films, including Phil Karlson’s noir The Brothers Rico, Richard Guine’s military comedy Operation Madball, and J. Lee Thompson’s war action film The Guns of Navarone.

By the 1960s, Darren’s big-screen acting career was nearing its end, although he appeared in a few more films like For Those Who Think Young and The Lively Set. His final movie appearance was in 2017’s comedy-drama Lucky, directed by John Carroll Lynch.

Darren remained active on television, starring in the late 1960s sci-fi show The Time Tunnel and making guest appearances in series like The Love Boat, Hawaii Five-O, and Fantasy Island.

In the 1980s, Darren was a series regular on T.J. Hooker. He noticed that no director was listed for an upcoming sequence and asked to try his hand at it. “When it was shown, I got several offers to direct,” he said in an interview with the New York Daily News. “Soon I was getting so many offers to direct, I kind of gave up acting and singing.”

For nearly two years, Darren directed episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger, Hunter, Melrose Place, and Beverly Hills 90210 among others. He returned to acting in the 1990s with small roles in Melrose Place and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Born James Ercolani in 1936, Darren grew up in South Philadelphia. Naturally gifted as a singer, he performed at local nightclubs by the age of 14.

“From the age of five or six, I knew I wanted to be an entertainer or famous, maybe,” Darren said in a 2003 interview. He mentioned luminaries like Eddie Fisher and Al Martino who lived in the same area. “[It was] a real neighborhood. It made you feel you could be successful too.”

Darren’s big break came during a trip to New York to get headshots, where he connected with a talent scout, according to his Los Angeles Times profile in 1958.

Soon after, he was signed by Columbia Pictures. His fan mail quickly grew to rival that of Vertigo star Kim Novak. “The studio now feels that the young man is ready to hit the jackpot,” Columbia remarked.

Darren married his first wife, Gloria Terlitsky, in 1955. They had a son, James Jr., and divorced by 1958. James Jr. was later adopted by Terlitsky’s third husband and is now known as US news anchor Jim Moret.

Two years after his divorce, Darren married Evy Norland, the Danish entry in the Miss Universe contest. They had two sons, Christian and Anthony.

The Gidget star was also the godfather to Nancy Sinatra’s daughter, A.J. Lambert, having co-starred with Sinatra in the 1964 comedy, For Those Who Think Young.

Source: Getty Images, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times