Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's James Darren Dies at 88

The former teen star has been struggling with heart problems recently.

By Russ Burlingame

James Darren, the former teen idol who played Vic Fontaine in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has died. He was 88 years old. The actor and musician, whose breakout role was as Moondoggie, the singing, surfing leading man in the Gidget movies, became a fairly household name when his song "Goodbye Cruel World" hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1961. The actor played the lounge singer across seven episodes of Deep Space Nine's final two seasons, and became a fan-favorite recurring character.

Born James William Ercolani on June 8, 1936, in Philadelphia, Darren would take on his stage name in 1955 when he moved to Hollywood, reportedly naming himself after the Kaiser-Darrin sports car. He signed a deal with Columbia, and played minor roles in several movies between 1956 and 1959, as well as appearing on TV's The Donna Reed Show. It would only be a few years before he broke through in 1959's Gidget. He would do two sequels -- Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Gidget Goes to Rome -- before moving on from the role.

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In those early days, Darren palled around with the Rat Pack, and remained close to some of those legendary performers for years, even being named godfather to Frank Sinatra's granddaughter.

Darren worked in feature films almost exclusively in the 1960s, but embraced TV starting in the 1970s, leading The Time Tunnel and the sci-fi pilot The Man From the 25th Century. All throughout, he continued to tour as part of his music career, making sure he kept busy year round.

In the 1970s, Darren would appear as a guest star in shows like S.W.A.T., Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, and Fantasy Island before taking on a series regular role on T.J. Hooker, in which he would star alongside Star Trek legend William Shatner., Besides Deep Space Nine, his '90s acting included roles on Silk Stalkings, Diagnosis: Murder, and Melrose Place.

Even when he embraced acting, Darren would regularly incorporate song and dance into his roles, from Gidget all the way up through his lounge-singing days in space. 

After Deep Space Nine, Darren largely retired from acting, appearing only in a pair of feature films -- 2001's Random Acts and 2017's Lucky. In 1999, he released an album of the songs he had performed on Deep Space Nine, and did only two more records during the last 20 years of his life.

According to TheWrap, Darren's son Jim Moret has told the media that his father had a scheduled heart surgery last week, but that the procedure was considered too high risk because Darren was so weak at the time. He was sent home, but returned to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center sometime after. Darren passed away there, surrounded by family.

While his time on Deep Space Nine was short, relative to his illustrious and decades-long career, Darren had nothing but positive things to say about it in interviews.

"I loved... everybody," he told StarTrek.com in 2021. "There wasn't a single person who I didn't have a good relationship with, whether it was on the set, on screen, or off. They were all incredibly considerate and kind, to say the least."

Darren is survived by his wife, actress and former Miss Denmark Evy Norlund, and their two sons. Our condolences go out to Mr. Darren's family, friends, collaborators and fans during this difficult time.

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