James Darren, Gidget and T.J. Hooker Actor, Dead at 88

Gidget and T.J. Hooker actor James Darren died Monday, September 2, at the age of 88.

Darren died in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to a message on his website.

Darren’s son, Inside Edition correspondent Jim Moret, told The Hollywood Reporter his father was due to undergo aortic valve replacement surgery but was deemed too weak to have the procedure.

“I always thought he would pull through because he was so cool. He was always cool,” Moret told the outlet.

A former teen idol, Darren became a popular star in the late 1950s and 1960s following his starring role in Gidget (1959), in which he played love interest Jeffrey “Moondoggie” Matthews. He reprised his role as Moondoggie in Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963).

In 1983, Darren joined the cast of the police drama T.J. Hooker starring William Shatner and Heather Locklear. He played Officer Jim Corrigan from season 2 to season 5. The actor later reunited with Locklear on Melrose Place, in which he appeared as Tony Marlin across five episodes.

Locklear paid tribute to Darren via Instagram late Monday, sharing a picture of them on T.J. Hooker. She captioned the post, “One of my favorite people. We would always laugh so hard together. Rest in peace my dear friend 😇❤️”

As well as acting, Darren was a singer and teen heartthrob. His song, “Goodbye Cruel World,” reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961.

“The defining moment was when I was at a studio in San Francisco and word got out that I was there,” Darren recalled to Los Angeles magazine in 2015 about his popularity among young women. “Thousands of girls were screaming out front. When I had to leave the building, they tackled me to the ground and pulled pieces of my hair out. The police had to rescue me and took me to the roof until things settled down. It was total pandemonium. That was the moment.”

Darren was married to Gloria Terlitsky from 1953 to 1958 and adopted her son, James Jr., now known as Jim Moret. He then wed former Miss Denmark Evy Norlund in 1960, who survives him along with Moret and his two sons with Norlund, Christian and Anthony.