James Darren, Actor Who Crooned As Vic Fontaine On 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine', Dead At 88

As a singer, he had several Top 10 hits, and as an actor was a 'T. J. Hooker' regular

The last song has been sung. James Darren, a singer and actor whose career spanned six decades with major roles starring in The Time Tunnel, T. J. Hooker, and the Gidget movies, and recurring roles on Melrose Place and as holographic singer Vic Fontaine on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, died Monday at the age of 88.

Darren was admitted for an aortic valve replacement to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. However, he was deemed too weak to have the surgery and was sent home but returned, and according to his son Inside Edition correspondent Jim Moret, his body gave out in his sleep. First married to childhood sweetheart Gloria Terlitsky from 1955 until their 1958 divorce, Darren is survived by his wife of 64 years Evy Norlund, two other sons Christian Darren and Tony Darren, five grandchildren: Amanda, Carly, Matthew, Natalie and Nicholas; and goddaughter A.J. Lambert, daughter of Nancy Sinatra.

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James William Ercolani was born on June 8, 1936 and grew up in South Philadelphia, it was Eddie Fisher who inspired him become a singer and actor, and he commuted to New York to study acting. A photography shop owner connected him to a Columbia Pictures talent scout, eventually signing a contract with the studio. His early major roles included Rumble on the Docks, Operation Mad Ball, The Brothers Rico and The Tijuana Story, Gunman’s Walk, Knock on Any Door, Let No Man Write My Epitaph and The Guns of Navarone. His role as Jerry “Moondoggie” Matthews spanned three films opposite three different actresses in the title role, starting with 1959’s Gidget with Sandra Dee in Gidget, 1961’s Gidget Goes Hawaiian with Deborah Walley, and 1963’s Gidget Goes to Rome with Cindy Carol. He also sang its theme song, which launched a successful singing career, who had a gold record with “Goodbye Cruel World”, which went gold in 1961, was Grammy-nominated and was #1 on Billboard for six weeks. He released at least 14 albums, with subsequent hits including “Her Royal Majesty”, “Conscience”, “All”, and for the Rocky soundtrack, “You Take My Heart Away”. He’s even gotten a Bedrock counterpart as “Jimmy Darrock” in an episode of The Flintstones and was Yogi Bear’s singing voice in Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!

Darren’s major series regular roles included as Dr. Tony Newman in the 1966-67 ABC adventure series The Time Tunnel, and as Officer Jim Corrigan on the latter four seasons of the William Shatner-starring drama T. J. Hooker, paired with Heather Locklear’s Stacy Sheridan. It is on Hooker that Darren would first dabble in directing, as an emergency fill-in for the show’s final season. He would go on to direct episodes of Hunter, Silk Stalkings, Werewolf, The A-Team, Beverly Hills 90210, and Melrose Place, appearing as Tony Marlin for five episodes there.

Darren made his debut as holographic lounge singer Vic Fontaine in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “His Way”, late in the sixth season. Only appearing in eight episodes over the season+ remaining of the series, including the series finale “What You Leave Behind”, he still made a great impact that made for standout episodes in the final season. In “It’s Only a Paper Moon”, he coached an injured Nog, played by Aron Eisenberg, helping him through his PTSD, while “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang” was an Ocean’s 11-style Vegas heist that served as a last gasp of fun before the series’s final ten episodes served an intense climax to the Dominion War. In the series finale, he put on a celebration concert that would be the last time the crew would be together before dispersing for new assignments.

Taking on the role of Fontaine allowed him to return to music. Since the character had a very Rat Pack style, he would perform such standards as “I've Got the World on a String”, “The Best Is Yet to Come”, “Come Fly with Me”, “I've Got You Under My Skin”, “The Way You Look Tonight”, and of course “It's Only a Paper Moon” which he would also perform on his album This One's from the Heart. He would do another album Because of You in 2001. His final film role was as Paulie in 2017’s Lucky, starring Harry Dean Stanton in what was his final film as well. The role is touted in what seems to be the final major front page update to Darren’s website, which has maintained a very ‘90s aesthetic and construction, though it lists its last update as having happened in March. Darren had also been performing in Vegas quite extensively before COVID struck.

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Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, TrekCore, JamesDarren.com

http://www.jamesdarren.com/