James Darren, who has died aged 88, was a toothsome and tanned American actor who became a teen idol in his early twenties as singing surfer Jeff “Moondoggie” Matthews in Gidget (1959), a film that ...

Actor and singer James Darren was a teen heartthrob back in the 1960s. Tall, dark and handsome, he starred in three of the "Gidget" beach movies. Darren died on Monday in his sleep at a hospital in ...

The actor and singer James Darren has died at the age of 88. On screen, he was forever young, a teen heartthrob who starred in the "Gidget" beach movies. NPR's Elizabeth Blair has an appreciation.

James Darren, the former teen idol and pop singer who played the dreamy surfer Moondoggie in three Gidget movies before starring on television on The Time Tunnel and T.J. Hooker, died Monday. He was ...