James Darren, Actor, Singer and ‘Gidget’ Heartthrob, Dies at 88

James Darren, an actor and singer whose starring role as a California surfer in the “Gidget” movies made him one of the most popular heartthrobs of the late 1950s and early ’60s, died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 88.

His son Jim Moret said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was congestive heart failure.

Mr. Darren, a Philadelphia native who didn’t surf and wasn’t even a particularly strong swimmer, had been a contract player with Columbia Pictures when he was cast as an aspiring surf bum in “Gidget,” which also starred Sandra Dee in the title role and Cliff Robertson as the Big Kahuna, the leader of a surfing gang.

Released in 1959, the movie told the story of a high school girl who befriends that gang in Malibu and develops a crush on Mr. Darren’s character, Moondoggie. It was a hit, and it became one of the first signs of the surfing craze that would soon include the music of the Beach Boys and the “Beach Party” films.

Mr. Darren went on to play the character in two more “Gidget” films, “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” (with Deborah Walley in the title role) and “Gidget Goes to Rome” (with Cindy Carol); land a role in the acclaimed 1961 World War II drama “The Guns of Navarone”; carve out a long career in prime-time television, including a starring role on the 1966-67 time-travel series “The Time Tunnel”; and release a number of singles and albums, first as a purveyor of lightweight pop tunes and later as a lounge singer whose repertoire consisted mostly of standards.

Before he was cast as Moondoggie, a character with a prominent singing role, Mr. Darren had never sung professionally. At first the studio considered having him lip-sync to someone else’s voice.

“I told them I could do it,” Mr. Darren told The Los Angeles Times in 2004. “So we went into one of the sound stages and I sang ‘Gidget.’ They said, ‘He sings fine,’ then I did all the other songs.”

His recording of that song, the movie’s theme, reached No. 41 on the Billboard pop chart; as a result, he began to juggle a singing career with an acting career.

The two paths would intersect throughout his life. In 1965, he provided the voice of a surf-rock singer named Jimmy Darrock in an episode of the animation series “The Flintstones,” and in the late 1990s he played a holographic crooner on several episodes of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” That part inspired him to return to the recording studio for the first time in almost 30 years.

James William Ercolani was born in South Philadelphia on June 8, 1936, to William Ercolani, a tailor, and Virginia (Lipiano) Ercolani.

He knew he wanted to be in show business from a young age. His grandmother would encourage him to sing for neighbors in exchange for a dime. Later, she would give him a quarter. When he was 12, his father began taking him to nightclubs, where, he recalled, he “would get up and sing two songs.”

But what he really wanted to do was act. When he was a teenager, James auditioned to study with Stella Adler in New York. Once he was accepted, he took the train from Philadelphia twice a week.

His lucky break came during a visit to a photographer for a head shot. The secretary asked if he’d like to be in movies and arranged for him to meet with Joyce Selznick, the niece of the movie mogul David O. Selznick. At the time, she worked in merchandising at the Columbia subsidiary Screen Gems and would later become his manager.

When Ms. Selznick and Mr. Darren stepped into the same elevator before they met, he later recalled, Ms. Selznick kept staring at him. She later took him to meet Harry Romm, a producer and agent, and Harry Cohn, the president of Columbia pictures. She secured him a seven-year contract without a screen test or a reading.

“I was like a child in the womb,” Mr. Darren said in a 2011 interview. “I was so protected. I had no worries at all. All the decisions were made by Joyce or by the people at Columbia Pictures, and I know they would make the best decision for me.”

The early years went well. His first film, the low-budget “Rumble on the Docks” (1956), brought him hundreds of fan letters. His performance in “Gidget” boosted his profile and led to a supporting role in “The Guns of Navarone,” an epic war film starring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn; it was a critical and commercial success.

But after “Gidget Goes to Rome” was released in 1963, it was evident that his twin careers had begun to plateau. The movie did not do well, and he never had a bigger hit than his early single “Goodbye Cruel World,” which hit No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1961.

Mr. Darren continued to get steady acting work for the rest of the decade, but mostly on television. His starring role on “The Time Tunnel” — he played Dr. Tony Newman, one of two government scientists lost in time, with each episode taking place in a different period and often during a pivotal historical moment — earned him a loyal cult following, although the series was short-lived.

In 1970, Mr. Darren met Buddy Hackett at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, and the two went on to work together in a comedy-and-music act for 12 years. At Mr. Hackett’s suggestion, he moved on from teenage pop tunes and began focusing more on standards, turning himself into a crooner in the vein of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, whom he had long admired.

“Everything I know about live performance, I learned from Buddy Hackett,” Mr. Darren said in a 2016 radio interview. “He’d tell me, ‘You know what? You’re, like, a romantic image, so to speak. Sing romantic songs! What are you singing this junk for?’”

He remained active on television into the 1980s, as a guest star on shows like “Charlie’s Angels” and “The Love Boat” and as a regular from 1982 to 1986 on the police drama “T.J. Hooker,” which starred William Shatner. It was while on that show that he began a new career as a television director. Over the next decade, he directed episodes of several popular television series, including “Melrose Place” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

After working primarily as a director for 12 years, Mr. Darren was cast in a recurring role on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” as the lounge singer Vic Fontaine. The character’s popularity encouraged him to release a new album based on the songs he sang on the series, and to resume touring. He released two albums of standards for the Concord Jazz label, “This One’s From the Heart” in 1999 and “Because of You” in 2001.

Mr. Darren married Gloria Terlitzky in 1955, and they divorced in 1958. Their son, Jim, is a broadcast journalist. In 1960, he married Evy Nordlund, a former Miss Denmark.

In addition to his son Jim, he is survived by his wife; their sons, Christian and Anthony; a brother, John; and five grandchildren.

Bernard Mokam contributed reporting.