Legendary actor James Darren, TJ Whore And Star WarsHe died on Monday at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Hollywood ReporterHe was 88 years old.
Darren was born in Philadelphia in 1936 and studied with Stella Adler in New York before becoming a pop idol in his teens. This led to roles as a surfer opposite Sandra Dee in the original film. Gidget (1959) and a young soldier in the classic film Navarone Guns (1961).
Darren's son, Jim Moret, said his father had entered Cedars-Sinai for an aortic valve replacement, but doctors thought he was too weak for the surgery. Darren was sent home for the weekend, but returned quickly after his condition worsened. Still, Moret didn't believe his father's time had come. He was shocked to learn Monday that he had died in his sleep.
“I always thought he would pull it off,” Moret said, “because he was so cool. He's always been cool.”
Darren continues to develop his teen idol image Gidget Goes to Hawaii (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) and provided the singing voice of Yogi Bear in the animated character's 1964 feature film Hi, I'm Yogi Bear! He starred in the short-lived but much-remembered ABC adventure series Time Tunnel (1967), but when his Hollywood career briefly stalled, Darren followed many of his contemporaries into Italian exploitation cinema, starring in Jesus Franco's 1969 erotic thriller Venus in Fur.
In the 80s, Darren returned to Hollywood with the role of Heather Locklear's off-the-cuff partner. TJ WhoreHe also took on directing duties on several popular shows of the time, including: Hunter, Silk StemsAnd Melrose PlaceFrom 1998 to 1999, Darren appeared in eight episodes. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
The actor's last film role, his first in 39 years, was John Carroll Lynch's 2017 film “The Night Out”. LuckyAn existential drama starring Harry Dean Stanton and David Lynch. Darren played one of Stanton's bar friends who forms the film's main sequence.
Moret said her father enjoyed interacting with fans of the Gidget character and his pop music career in his later years. “He was a good man. He was very talented,” Moret said. “He was forever young.”
Darren is survived by his wife Evy, sons Jim Moret, Christian Darren and Tony Darren, and five grandchildren.