James Darren born 8 June 1936

James Darren (June 8, 1936 – September 2, 2024) was an American television and film actor, television director, and singer.

Born James William Ercolani in Philadelphia, on June 8, 1936, Darren began his career as a teen idol, having been discovered by talent agent and casting director Joyce Selznick. This encompassed roles in films where he had a contract with Columbia Pictures, most notably his role as Moondoggie in Gidget in 1959, as well as a string of pop hits for Colpix Records, the biggest of which was "Goodbye Cruel World" (#3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961). It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Another sizeable hit was "Her Royal Majesty" (#6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962). He is also featured in one of the Scopitone series of pop music video jukebox films ("Because You're Mine").

                                    

James Darren is not related to Bobby Darin. This confusion sometimes arises because: their names are pronounced similarly, they are the same age, they both started their careers as teen idols with similarly styled songs, both later sang some of the same standard pop/jazz ballads, and they are both associated with Gidget. 

James starred in "Gidget" films as Gidget's (Sandra Dee) love interest. In real life, Bobby was the love interest: he married Sandra Dee. During this time, he also appeared as a guest star on the popular ABC-TV sitcom The Donna Reed Show.

Darren's role in the 1961 World War II film The Guns of Navarone was an attempt to break out of his teen image. In 1963 he signed a seven picture deal with Universal, starting with The Lively Set. (Photo below:- Associated Press File James Darren chats with Nancy Sinatra (center) and Claudia Martin in the summer of 1963. The trio were busy filming "For Those Who Think Young," one of Darren's non-"Gidget" movies.)

 

He was the singing voice of Yogi Bear in the 1964 animated film, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!, on the song "Ven-e, Ven-o, Ven-a". Prior to that, he was the singing and speaking voice of "Jimmy Darrock" on an episode of The Flintstones. He then achieved success co-starring as impulsive scientist and adventurer Tony Newman in the science fiction television series, The Time Tunnel (1966-67).

In the 1970s, Darren appeared as a celebrity panellist on Match Game. Later Darren had a regular role as Officer James Corrigan on the television police drama T. J. Hooker from 1983–1986. Subsequently he worked as a director on many action-based television series, including Hunter, The A-Team, and Nowhere Man, as well as dramas such as Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place.

In 1998, he achieved renewed popularity as a singer through his appearances on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the role of holographic crooner and advice-giver Vic Fontaine; many of his performances on the show were re-recorded for the album This One's from the Heart (1999). The album showed Darren, a close friend of Frank Sinatra, comfortably singing in the Sinatra style; the 2001 follow-up Because of You showed similar inspiration from Tony Bennett.

Darren had been married twice. His first wife was Gloria Terlitsky with whom he had one son, Jim Moret, who formerly worked as a CNN reporter. His second wife is Evy Norlund, with whom he had two sons. 

Darren died from congestive heart failure in his sleep, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, on September 2, 2024. He was 88. In the weeks before his death, Darren was experiencing issues relating to the function of his aortic valve. His doctors judged his condition too fragile to undergo surgery and repair it.

(Edited mainly from Wikipedia)