James Darren, a legendary actor who starred on T.J. Hooker and Star Trek, died on Monday at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, via The Hollywood Reporter. He was 88.
Darren was born in Philadelphia in 1936 and studied with Stella Adler in New York City before becoming something of a pop idol in his teen years. That led to roles as a surfer opposite Sandra Dee in the original Gidget (1959), and a young soldier in the classic The Guns of Navarone (1961).
Darren’s son, Jim Moret, told the outlet that his father had entered Cedars-Sinai for an aortic valve replacement, but doctors had deemed him too weak for the surgery. Darren was sent home over the weekend but quickly returned when his condition worsened. Still, Moret didn’t believe it was his father’s time. He was surprised to learn that he died in his sleep on Monday.
“I always thought he would pull through,” Moret said, “because he was so cool. He was always cool.”
Darren continued to curate his teen-idol image in Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963), and as the singing voice of Yogi Bear in the animated character’s 1964 feature Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear! He headlined the short-lived but much-remembered ABC adventure series The Time Tunnel (1967), but when his Hollywood career briefly stalled, Darren followed many of his contemporaries into Italian exploitation cinema, headlining Jesus Franco’s 1969 erotic thriller Venus In Furs.
In the ‘80s, Darren returned to Hollywood with a major role as Heather Locklear’s ill-prepared partner in T.J. Hooker. He also took up directing duties on several popular shows of the era, including Hunter, Silk Stalkings, and Melrose Place. From 1998 until ‘99, Darren starred in eight episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
The actor’s final film role, his first in 39 years, came in John Carroll Lynch’s 2017 film Lucky, an existential drama starring Harry Dean Stanton and David Lynch. Darren played one of Stanton’s bar buddies who anchors the film’s central sequence.
Moret said that in his later years, his father took great pleasure in interacting with fans of his Gidget character and his pop music career. “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.
