Throughout his acting career, Darren also pursued his other passion, singing, performing in many of Chicago’s biggest nightclubs of the time.
James Darren, a 1950s teen idol and singer who starred in a series of “Gidget” movies in the early 1960s and later on TV series “T.J. Hooker,” “’Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Melrose Place,” has died. He was 88.
According to Hollywoodreporter.com Darren died in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where, according to his family, he was seeking treatment for a heart ailment.
Darren, born James William Ercolani on June 8, 1936, in South Philadelphia, found fame in the late 1950s as an aspiring singer and actor along with a slew of fellow South Philly pals including Frankie Avalon, Eddie Fisher, Al Martino, Fabian Forte and Bobby Rydell. Early song hits included “Goodbye Cruel World” in 1958, and “Her Royal Majesty” in 1963.
In 1959, Darren, who studied acting in New York under the auspices of the legendary Stella Adler, was soon cast as Jeff “Moondoggie” Matthews in the movie “Gidget,” playing a California surfer opposite Sandra Dee’s title ingenue.
