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James Darren, the actor who sparked the surfing craze in the 1960s with his role as the charismatic Beach Boy in the hit film Gidgethas died at the age of 88, his family confirmed.

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

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

“I always thought he would make it,” Moret told reporters. “Because he was so cool. He was always cool.”

During his long career, Darren has worked as an actor and singer and built a successful career behind the scenes as a television director, directing episodes of well-known series including Beverly Hills 90210 And Melrose Square. In the 1980s he played Officer Jim Corrigan in the television cop show TJ Hooker.

But young film fans of the late 1950s will probably remember Darren best as Moondoggie, the dark-haired surfer boy in the hit 1959 film. Gidget. Sandra Dee played the title character, a Southern Californian who goes to the beach and eventually falls in love with Moondoggie.

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

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The film is based on a novel written by Californian Frederick Kohner about his own teenage daughter, who sparked an interest in surfing – an interest that influenced pop music, slang and even fashion.

For Darren, his success with teenage fans led to a record deal. Two of the star’s singles, “Goodbye Cruel World” and “Her Royal Majesty,” reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with “Goodbye Cruel World” also featured in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical film. The Fabelmans.

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Darren was the only Gidget Actor who appeared in both sequels, Gidget goes to Hawaii and 1963 Gidget goes to Rome. Dee was replaced by Deborah Walley in the second film and by Cindy Carol in the third.

“They had signed me, I was a prisoner,” said Darren Weekly entertainment in 2004. “But with these lovely young ladies, it was the best prison I will ever be in.”

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

In the sixties, when Darren was in For those who think young And The lively sethis career as an actor on the big screen was almost over. After the 1960s, he only appeared in a handful of films, most recently in the 2017 comedy HappyDirected by: John Carroll Lynch.

But Darren remained active on television and appeared as a lead actor in the science fiction series The time tunnel in the late 1960s and played guest appearances and small recurring roles in television shows such as The Love Boat, Hawaii Five-O And Fantasy Island.

Darren appeared in four seasons of the series starring William Shatner. TJ Hooker in the 1980s. It became one of his best known shows. While appearing on the show, he noticed that there was no director listed for an upcoming sequence and asked if he could audition for it.

“When the film was shown, I received several offers to direct,” he told New York Daily News“Soon I was getting so many offers to direct that I more or less gave up acting and singing.”

For almost two years, Darren directed episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger, hunter, Melrose Square, Beverly Hills 90210 in series, among others. In the 1990s he returned to acting, with small roles in Melrose Square And Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

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Darren was born James Ercolani in 1936 and grew up in South Philadelphia. He was a gifted singer and was performing in local nightclubs by the age of 14.

“Even at the age of five or six, I knew I wanted to be an entertainer or maybe famous,” he said in a 2003 interview, noting that greats like Eddie Fisher and Al Martino had lived in the same area as him. “(It was) a real neighborhood,” he said. “You felt like you could be successful, too.”

Darren was lucky when he went to New York to do portraits and the photographer’s office put him in touch with a talent scout, as can be seen from his profile in the Los Angeles Times in 1958.

He was soon signed by Columbia Pictures, and after a few small roles, his fan mail was in the studio after the dizziness Star Kim Novak. “The studio now believes the young man is ready to hit the jackpot,” Colombia said.

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

Two years after his divorce from Terlitsky, Darren married Danish Miss Universe contestant Evy Norland. They had two sons, Christian and Anthony.

The Gidget Star was also godfather to Nancy Sinatra’s daughter AJ Lambert after starring alongside Sinatra in Leslie H. Martinson’s 1964 comedy. For those who think young.

Additional reporting by agencies