{"id":20570,"date":"2026-03-12T15:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T15:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=20570"},"modified":"2026-03-12T15:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T15:29:11","slug":"gidget-teen-idol-actor-passed-away-at-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=20570","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gidget\u2019 Teen Idol Actor Passed Away At 88"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ad_ph\">\n<p data-start=\"80\" data-end=\"340\">James Darren, the actor best known for playing Moondoggie in the <em data-start=\"145\" data-end=\"153\">Gidget<\/em> films, died in his sleep on September 2 at age 88. He had been hospitalized for an aortic valve replacement but was too weak for surgery, his son Jim Moret told The Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"342\" data-end=\"731\">Born James William Ercolani on June 8, 1936, in Philadelphia to Italian immigrant parents, Darren started as a singer but rose to fame as Moondoggie in <em data-start=\"494\" data-end=\"502\">Gidget<\/em> (1959) alongside Sandra Dee. He reprised the role in <em data-start=\"556\" data-end=\"578\">Gidget Goes Hawaiian<\/em> (1961) and <em data-start=\"590\" data-end=\"611\">Gidget Goes to Rome<\/em> (1963), becoming a 1960s teen idol. His 1961 hit single \u201cGoodbye Cruel World\u201d reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"733\" data-end=\"885\">Darren later starred in <em data-start=\"757\" data-end=\"774\">The Time Tunnel<\/em> (1966\u201367) and <em data-start=\"789\" data-end=\"802\">T.J. Hooker<\/em> (1983\u201386) and directed episodes of shows including <em data-start=\"854\" data-end=\"862\">Hunter<\/em> and <em data-start=\"867\" data-end=\"882\">Melrose Place<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"887\" data-end=\"1002\">He was married twice, to Gloria Terlitsky (one son, Jim Moret) and Evy Norlund (two sons, Christian and Anthony).<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1004\" data-end=\"1020\">Rest in peace.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OhFtq0OC_M8?si=nC3rdetv88rRr4Zt\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dcr9xQIUTBg?si=IOGMv9QCkvgeG6HB\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Darren, the actor best known for playing Moondoggie in the Gidget films, died in his sleep on September 2 at age 88. He had been hospitalized for an aortic valve replacement but was too weak for surgery, his son Jim Moret told The Hollywood Reporter. Born James William Ercolani on June 8, 1936, in&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=20570\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;\u2018Gidget\u2019 Teen Idol Actor Passed Away At 88&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20573,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20570\/revisions\/20573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}