One aspect of growing older I’ll never get used to is seeing so many names and faces I grew up with passing away. This morning, I’d read about the passing of actor James Darren (1936-2024), who died in his sleep last night (September 2nd), from apparent issues relating to an inoperable heart condition. He is survived by his second wife, Evy Norlund, two daughters, and a son Jim Moret; the chief correspondent for TV’s “Inside Edition.”

Actor-crooner(and occasional director) James Darren got his big break as “Moondoggie” in the original trilogy of Gidget movies (1959’s “Gidget,” 1961’s “Gidget Goes Hawaiian,” 1962’s “Gidget Goes to Rome”) before it became a TV series (for which Darren was not involved). Clearly Darren was a prototype for future beach movie idols, such as Frankie Avalon. However, Darren had real acting chops, and he wanted to do more than just beach movies or teen romances. This was a guy who used to commute from Philadelphia to New York City to study drama under famed acting instructor Stella Adler, before relocating to the Big Apple. 

When I was a kid, I wasn’t too familiar with Darren’s pop tunes, such as the title theme to “Gidget” and “Goodbye Cruel World,” but I was very familiar with his appearance in “The Flintstones,” where he did a sendup of his own teen idol image by voicing and singing as “Jimmy Darrock.” As a huge fan of “The Flintstones” at the age of seven or so, that was my first real exposure to James Darren, and it was very memorable. For me, he was right up there with Ann Margrock and Stoney Curtis…

James Darren would also appear in more weighty roles, such as the 1961 World War 2 action-drama, “The Guns of Navarone” (1961), where he costarred with Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn.  Such a role must’ve been personally redeeming for the actor, who no doubt craved this kind of part after starring in two Gidget flicks and was in danger of being typecast as a teen idol-type.

Some of the actor’s steadier acting gigs came from TV and film producer, Irwin Allen, who would find his greatest fame producing a string of hit disaster films in the 1970s (“The Poseidon Adventure,” “The Towering Inferno,” “The Swarm”). Darren had a memorable role as “The Mechanical Man” in a popular episode of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” (1964-1968); a TV series based on producer Allen’s 1961 same-named feature film. Allen also produced the original “Lost in Space” (1965-1968) and “Land of the Giants” (1968-1970).

His appearance on “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” would lead to Darren’s first starringTV role in Allen’s “The Time Tunnel” (1966-1967); a one season-wonder that was a clear inspiration for NBC’s later “Quantum Leap” (1989-1993) and its short-lived reboot (2022-2024). With an ensemble cast that included Whit Bissell, John Zaremba, and Lee Meriwether (1966’s “Batman: The Movie”), the series saw impulsive scientist Dr. Tony Newman taking his own ‘quantum leap’ into the tunnel, with his mentor Dr. Doug Phillips (Robert Colbert) braving the man-made temporal vortex of “Project TicToc” to retrieve him. The two are trapped in time together, with their exploits being closely monitored at the project’s massive subterranean base.  

The show followed Tony and Doug’s adventures in the past. Typical episodes would see the two arriving on the RMS Titanic, or in Medieval England, or even battling hostile extraterrestrials in Earth’s future.  Produced back in the days when TV seasons ran considerably longer than today, the show would get 30 hour-long episodes under its belt before “Project TicToc” was mothballed for good, leaving Tony and Doug stranded in time.  For context, 30 episodes is just under two seasons of the recent “Quantum Leap” reboot, which barely managed 31 before its own untimely cancellation. 

Later, Irwin Allen would produce another pilot starring Darren called “The Man from the 25th Century” (1968), where he played a man born on Earth in 1951 who was raised by aliens in the 25th century; the premise was not unlike the premise for Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry’s “Assignment: Earth”; a backdoor pilot featuring Robert Lansing as “Gary Seven,” a human raised by advanced aliens in hopes of helping us poor backward folks of present-day Earth get our act together before we ‘trek to the stars’ someday (forgive the foreshadowing). Sadly, “The Man from the 25th Century” never got past the pilot stage. 

From there, James Darren became a guest-star mainstay on many TV shows, including “Charlie’s Angels” (1977), “Vegas” (1980), several episodes of “Fantasy Island” (1977-1984) and many more.  Eventually, he would land a permanent role on another series as policeman Jim Corrigan in the second season of “T.J. Hooker” (1982-1986); a role he would continue until the end of the series.  Interestingly, one of Darren’s costars was original Star Trek icon William Shatner (“Captain James T. Kirk”), and Star Trek would play a significant role in Darren’s own life in the late 1990s.

It was in the sixth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) that Darren would be reintroduced to a whole new generation of fans, with a recurring role as the the titular space station’s holographic entertainer “Vic Fontaine”; a Frank Sinatra-like Las Vegas crooner from the Rat Pack era that the crew of the titular space station would often turn to for both entertainment and advice. In that way, DS9’s Vic was sort of a singing answer to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s own Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg). The character first appeared in the sixth season episode “His Way,” when lovesick shapeshifter Odo (the late Rene Auberjonois) turned to Vic to help him woo the station’s first officer, Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor).  The character cleverly allowed the actor to put his natural vocal gifts to great use.

The character’s Rat Pack-era trappings were just about tailor-made for Darren, who was a close personal friend of the legendary singer and Oscar-winning superstar Frank Sinatra (1915-1988); becoming godfather to Sinatra’s granddaughter A.J. Lambert; the daughter of singer Nancy Sinatra. Perhaps it was this relationship to the leader of the real Rat Pack (Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, et al) that really cemented the character’s credibility.

Note: Fictitious Rat Packer “Vic Fontaine” is named similarly to “Johnny Fontane”; the Frank Sinatra-like character from Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather” (the book & film); a character that made the real Sinatra furious with writer Puzo.

The Vic Fontaine character would gain increasing significance in his two year run with the series, with his best episode being “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” where Vic helps traumatized Starfleet war veteran Nog (the late Aron Eisenberg) learn to deal with reality again after the young Ferengi retreats to the holosuite to avoid dealing with his issues. That DS9 could easily devote an entire episode to two of its recurring characters tells something of the incredibly talented series ensemble—main and recurring cast members.  

Note: I was fortunate to have formed a friendship with actor Aron Eisenberg (1969-2019), after interviewing him twice for this site (The Man Behind The Mask: an interview with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Aron Eisenberg, Deep Space Nog: Another conversation with Aron Eisenberg). That last interview in August of 2019 was conducted only a month before Aron passed away at age 50 (The Star Trek family loses a beloved brother: Aron Eisenberg, 1969-2019). I got to know Aron both in-person and during our many direct-message chats on Twitter, where we used to discuss politics (he was very civic-minded). Aron was a lovely man, and he is deeply missed. 

I would have the personal pleasure of meeting James Darren at my very first Star Trek Las Vegas convention (aka STLV) for the franchise’s 50th anniversary in 2016. In person, the affable James Darren exuded some of that old Las Vegas cool. With his ready grin, rose-tinted glasses and classic show-biz air, it almost felt like meeting a real member of the Rat Pack.

On that note, it’s fitting I close this tribute to Darren with a song of his that still brings a tear to this old Niner’s eye; his cover of “The Way You Look Tonight,” which he also sang in the DS9 series’ finale, “What We Leave Behind” (1999). It’s a fitting epitaph for this talented performer and his intertwined careers of acting and singing; two talents that Deep Space Nine wisely employed, giving the entertainer a whole new generation of fans. 

James Darren, 1936-2024.