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Teen idol James Darren dogged his brand as Gidget’s surfer boy – outlasted the car that inspired his name
Teen idol James Darren, Gidget’s beloved Moondoggie, enjoyed six decades of success, outperforming the 1940s roadster that inspired his name.
At the peak of his career, the teen idol, who’s now 87, was the desire of swooning teen girls everywhere. During those years, adoring fans would tackle him to the ground, grabbing whatever they could, including the locks of his wavy black hair.
Moving from his home in Philadelphia to Hollywood in the mid-1950s, James Darren, who was born James Ercolani, adopted the new name James Darren after the rare Kaiser Darrin sportscar, which ended production in 1954.
Staring his career where his namesake stopped, Darren was first introduced to adoring fans with a lead role in the low-budget 1956 film Rumble on the Docks, a performance he said was his first break.
“That really was my first break because I started getting 400 to 500 letters a month from that film.” Darren continued, “You’re not talking about a major film here. So, that kind of put me on a different level at the studio and they took notice.”
After appearing in several films, he was then cast in the 1959 hit film Gidget, playing alongside the legendary Sandra Dee. This was the first role that allowed the young star to demonstrate his exceptional talents as a singer.
“I wasn’t really a singer. I was a kid in Philly whose dad would take him to bars and nightclubs and I would get up and sing two songs. I didn’t sing professionally until I did Gidget. They knew that I liked singing, but they didn’t know how well I could sing,” Darren told the LA Times, adding that production was so impressed with his vocals that he sang the title track, “Gidget.”
And when girls saw the handsome young man with wavy dark hair, who had a voice that made hearts melt, Darren instantly became a heartthrob.
When plugging his music at a San Francisco radio station, the multi-faceted actor recalls the fan frenzy: “…there were these group of young ladies [from the audience] who broke through the glass door and pulled me out on the sidewalk. They started pulling hairs out of my head for souvenirs,” Darren shared. “I remember lying there out on the street on my back and looking up at all those faces in the sky…I was enjoying it–not the pain, but the adulation. The police rescued me and brought me up on the roof. And I’d look down from the roof and they would scream. That was fun…I loved it. Loved it!”
As one of the stars of the beach party culture, Darren’s career exploded, also launching his career as a musician.
His first hit was “Goodbye Cool World,” which dominated charts with its release in 1961, and in 1962 he dropped the song “Her Royal Majesty,” a song written by Carole King and Gary Goffin.
Attempting to break his teen image, Darren then had a supporting role in 1961’s World War II film, The Guns of Navarone, which starred Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, and David Niven.
But freeing himself of the beach babe brand wasn’t as easy as he had hoped. Though Dee had moved on from her role as the boy-crazy teenager, Darren did not have similar luck.
The “Angel Face” singer then appeared in Gidget Goes Hawaiian, with Deborah Walley playing the title character, and in 1962 he played the surfer boy for the last time in Gidget Goes to Rome, with Cindy Carol playing the high school surfer girl.
The next year, still in a place of character transition, he sang the title song for the Golden Globe-winning film, Under the Yum Yum Tree, and then from 1966 to 1967 he tumbled through time in the Sci-Fi TV series Time Tunnel.
“I got a lot of film offers after Time Tunnel, but they were all things I didn’t want to do. I hit the nightclubs and never looked back,” said Darren, explaining that by “nightclubs,” he was crooning for an older cocktail crowd. “Some of it’s time warp stuff, sure. Why not? That’s what people remember. That’s why I’m there.”
Over the next decade, he appeared in episodes of shows like Charlie’s Angels, Hawaii Five-O, the Love Boat, and Fantasy Island.
From 1982 to 1985, he finally broke the beach-bopping image in the popular police drama, T.J Hooker, where he played officer Jim Corrigan, starring alongside William Shatner and Heather Locklear.
This is also when he developed his career, adding director to his credits, which includes the final episode of T.J Hooker, Melrose Place, Beverley Hills 90210, and Walker, as well as Texas Ranger.
Following in the steps of Shatner, who’s best known as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek TV series, the Diamond Head star then appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the role of a holographic crooner, a performance that inspired his 1999 album, “This One’s for the Heart.”
Though he’s slowed down in the past two decades, he can be seen in 2017’s Lucky–his last film appearance–and he continues to perform his jazzy, big-band style music, that is heavily influenced by his close friend Frank Sinatra as well as legend Tony Bennet.
Darren, who voiced Yogi’s musical tunes in Hey There! It’s Yogi Bear, has been married to Miss Denmark in 1958 Evy Norlund since 1960. The pair share two children, and with ex-wife Gloria Terlitsky (1955 to 1958), he has one son, the popular broadcast journalist James Moret.
And, if you’re wondering, Darren doesn’t own a Kaiser Darrin, instead a silver 1958 Porsche 1600 Super Speedster that he bought almost 50 years ago for $6,000. “It’s one of the most beautiful cars ever. The design is eternal. I would like to put it in my living room but my wife won’t go for it,” Darren said.
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