James Darren

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. James William Ercolani (June 8, 1936 - September 2, 2024), known by his stage name James Darren, was an American television and film actor, television director, and singer. He wanted to be an actor and studied in New York City with Stella Adler for a number of years. He would also occasionally sing although he later said "I wasn't really a singer. I was a kid in Philly whose dad would take him to bars and nightclubs and I would get up and sing two songs." Darren was discovered by talent agent and casting director Joyce Selznick after he got some photographs taken by Maurice Seymour to show potential agents: His secretary, a woman by the name of Yvonne Bouvier, asked me if I was interested in getting into film. I said yeah, I was. She said I know someone you should meet. She set up a meeting between me and Joyce Selznick, who worked for Screen Gems. Joyce brought me over to Columbia Pictures about a week later and got me a contract there. Columbia signed Darren to a long term contract in July 1956. A few weeks later, he was filming his first film, Rumble on the Docks. His appearance was well received and he got a lot of fan mail - second at the studio only to Kim Novak. Darren guest starred on an episode of TV's The Web ("Kill and Run") then Columbia gave him a support role in an "A" picture, the comedy Operation Mad Ball, starring Jack Lemmon. He had support roles in two films directed by Phil Karlson: The Brothers Rico and Gunman's Walk. In between he was in The Tijuana Story, although his role was relatively small. Darren was third billed in the surf film, Gidget. He also sang the title track. The film was a hit with teen audiences and so was the song. Darren wound up recording a string of pop hits for Colpix Records, the biggest of which was "Goodbye Cruel World". It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Another sizeable hit was "Her Royal Majesty". He is also featured in one of the Scopitone series of pop music video jukebox films ("Because You're Mine"). Darren was third billed in a series of films for Columbia: The Gene Krupa Story, All the Young Men, and Let No Man Write My Epitaph. He had a cameo as himself in a teen film, Because They're Young, singing the title track. Darren had a supporting role in the World War II film The Guns of Navarone. Also popular was Gidget Goes Hawaiian, where Darren reprised his role as Moondoggie; he was given top billing. Darren also acted in Diamond Head as well as a third time in Gidget Goes to Rome, which he sang the title track for, Under the Yum Yum Tree. In 1963, Darren signed a seven picture deal with Universal, starting with The Lively Set. He was the singing voice of Yogi Bear in the animated film, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!, on the song "Ven-e, Ven-o, Ven-a". He was the singing voice of his own character "Jimmy Darrock" on an episode of The Flintstones. However the character's dialogue was provided by voice actor Lennie Weinrib. He subsequently launched a career as a director, notably of action-based series , including Hunter, The A-Team, Silk Stalkings, Renegade, and Nowhere Man, as well as dramas such as Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Darren, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For: Acting

Born: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 1936-06-08

Died: 2024-09-02

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1956	Rumble on the Docks	Jimmy Smigelski	57
2	1957	Operation Mad Ball	Pvt. Widowskas	66
3	1957	The Brothers Rico	Johnny Rico	62
4	1957	The Tijuana Story	Mitch	43
5	1958	Gunman's Walk	Davy Hackett	67
6	1959	Gidget	Moondoggie	60
7	1959	The Gene Krupa Story	Eddie Sirota	70
8	1960	Because They're Young	Self	55
9	1960	All the Young Men	Pvt. Cotton	63
10	1960	Let No Man Write My Epitaph	Nick Romano	61
11	1961	The Guns of Navarone	Pvt. Spyros Pappadimos	73
12	1961	Gidget Goes Hawaiian	Jeffrey "Moondoggy" Matthews	46
13	1962	Diamond Head	Paul Kahana	54
14	1963	Gidget Goes to Rome	Moondoggie (Jeffrey Matthews)	48
15	1964	For Those Who Think Young	Gardner "Ding" Pruitt III	52
16	1964	Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!	Yogi Bear ('Ven-e, Ven-o, Ven-a') (singing voice)	63
17	1964	The Lively Set	Casey Owens	0
18	1969	Venus in Furs	Jimmy Logan	53
19	1971	City Beneath the Sea	Dr. Talty	41
20	1971	Mooch Goes to Hollywood	James Darren	47
21	1975	The Lives of Jenny Dolan	Orlando	0
22	1978	The Boss' Son	Buddy Weistein	0
23	1980	Turnover Smith	Georgie Green	0
24	1981	Scruples	Vito Orsini	0
25	1982	Aliens From Another Planet	Tony Newman	50
26	1986	T.J. Hooker - Blood Sport	Officer Jim Corrigan	0
27	2017	Lucky	Paulie	73
28	2018	What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Self	71
29	2018	New Dimensions	Self	0

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1950	The Bob Hope Show	Self	70
2	1953	The Oscars	Self	71
3	1956	The Steve Allen Show	Self - Singer	56
4	1957	Tonight Starring Jack Paar	Self	70
5	1958	The Dick Clark Show	Self	55
6	1958	The Donna Reed Show	Buzz Berry	62
7	1958	The Donna Reed Show	Kip Dennis / Jim Bryce	62
8	1960	The Flintstones	Jimmy Darrock (voice)	74
9	1961	The Mike Douglas Show	Self - Co-Host	54
10	1961	The Mike Douglas Show	Self	54
11	1962	The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson	Self	75
12	1962	The Merv Griffin Show	Self	58
13	1964	Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea	Omir	78
14	1966	The Time Tunnel	Tony Newman	76
15	1967	Malibu U	Self	10
16	1968	Hawaii Five-O	Johnny Munroe	71
17	1969	The Barbara McNair Show	Self	0
18	1969	Love, American Style	Roger Barnes	61
19	1973	Police Story		69
20	1974	Police Woman	Rick Matteo	63
21	1974	Dinah!	Self	67
22	1975	S.W.A.T.		70
23	1976	Baa Baa Black Sheep	Lt. Col. Rod Towers	76
24	1976	Charlie's Angels	David Barzak	67
25	1976	Battle of the Network Stars		72
26	1977	The Love Boat	Tony Streeter	63
27	1978	Vega$		70
28	1982	T. J. Hooker	Officer Jim Corrigan	64
29	1982	T. J. Hooker	Dan Danko	64
30	1992	Melrose Place		59
31	1992	Renegade	Lou Delgado	67
32	1993	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Vic Fontaine	79
33	1993	Diagnosis: Murder	Councilman Matthew Watson	71
34	2022	The Shuttlepod Show	Self	100

James Darren

Film

Television