How Sad We Don't Have Stars Like James Darren Anymore

My first child-hood TV crush from watching re-runs of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”.

You were raised right R1.

Hot bulge!

Moondoggie

And he had chewable nips!

happy to loan out my copy of Teenage Triangle

James Ercolani. Italian.

Male version of a starlet. He doesn’t ring my bell.

Frank torpedoed his career for divorcing Nancy

Juliet, aren't you confusing him with Tommy Sands? Which would be hard, admittedly.

Estranged from his son, Jim Moret. Who knows why -

I've never heard he was estranged from Jim Moret, but I did see that he apparently allowed his former wife's new husband to adopt their son. That threw me. I'd love to know the circumstances surrounding that. I just don't know what to think about any man who would willingly give up his parental rights to his own child.

[quote] Frank torpedoed his career for divorcing Nancy

Erm, he was never married to Nancy Sinatra.

I've recently discovered him because a local tv channel that plays old TV shows is showing TJ Hooker every Monday-Friday. He's so hot DILF on the show which wonderfully accompanies Adrian Zmed's hot young hunk. I wasn't even born when the show was on the air but I'd have loved to have gotten double stuffed by this duo at their prime.

He was no Bill Bixby.

He didn't even have the sparkle of Mark Goddard (RIP).

He sang some great early 1960s tunes, this distinguishes him from the other idols mentioned here, and he was sexier than most of his singing contemporaries in that regard.

Anyone see him sing live? He released two ez/ jazz albums circa 2000.

I don't know how frequently he performed at that point...he was 70 or so?

I admire him for going out there for the fans. Better than a convention.

Not sure he could release a tune entitled "Mammy Blue" today... but it was a real toe tapper back in 1972.

R14, Obviously, not estranged.

r10 is correct. Most stars today are BETTER than James Darren, who was never anything special. I did like Time Tunnel, though

Amazing with his limited range, how consistently he remained employed for decades.

And stayed out of the tabloids.

James Darren was raised right.

Limited range. Less charismatic male version of Jill St. John (the truly eternal starlet).

James and Gloria, Jim Moret’s mother, divorced and James gave up his parental rights when Gloria married her third husband. The third husband helped raise the kid, R13.

Watch his guest star appearance on Charlie’s Angels. He spends a third of the episode in a caftan. You won’t be turned on anymore.

I adored him, he was also my first crush. I was pre-teen! Later on he got a role in a movie with Shelley Winters, and he was very good. He never really got an opportunity to show his acting chops because of all the teen heartthrob bullshit he did. But I think he could have grown into someone significant given a chance. I remember the movie Diamond Head he starred as George Chakiris' brother. But he isn't in the movie very long. His easy listening jazz albums weren't bad at all. I read somewhere that he had a drinking problem. Big time. He did LAs Vegas with Buddy Hackett. They were friends. Buddy opened with comedy and he sang. I'm tellin ya. Between James Darren and John Saxon I was totally crushing.

I confuse him with John Saxon.

Oh c'mon. John Saxon was SO MUCH SEXIER!

Darren very much fit the bill of those late 1950s/early 1960s teen heart throbs who were all about a certain kind of non-threatening harmless sexuality. Like a Ken doll, it was impossible for teenaged girls to even imagine they came equipped with genitalia.

That is, until 1964 when the Beatles showed up and changed everything.

Of course, us gaylings back then were all over the hairy-chested pulchritude of Bob Conrad, Vince Edwards and Clint Walker.

I wouldn't throw him out of bed.

R31, They were friends.

[quote] John Saxon was SO MUCH SEXIER!

Well, to you at least.

Wait! Jimmy said John Saxon was straight (@ r34)? News to me.

r35, well, yes, obviously, to me as I'm the one who wrote it.

I'll give James Darren this: he was and remains a very handsome man but I particularly praise him for dressing in smart casual clothes that fit him well and keeping that beautiful head of hair of his nicely cut with a modern haircut. It really helps at that age. So many of his old men with clothes that are either too baggy or too tight and ridiculously long hair.

[Quote] watching re-runs of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”.

Voyage to the bottom of my ass gave me the runs.

I'll grant you he's no Hugh O'Brian

This whole thread I’ve been trying to square the idea of James Darren singing Mack the Knife and having a fucked up relationship with Sandra Dee.

Then I remembered…BOBBY DarrIn.

🦈

Oops. Bobby Darin.

Hugh O Brian was Gay, Gay, Gay.

R42, Because he didn’t marry until he was 81?

Darren's son Jim Moret wrote a book in 2010 about his suicidal depression during a time when he was underwater with his mortgage and thought his family would be better off without him and collecting his life insurance. In the memoir he has a chapter relating his feelings of abandonment when Darren gave up parental rights but that he forgives him. Darren was offended by the chapter and cut off all contact with Moret and his family.

R44, Yet, this joint appearance was in 2019.

If Hugh O'Brian was gay there'd by 100s of stories about him from former lovers and hook-ups. He was way hotter than Rock Hudson. I suspect he was just asexual and not interested in sex with anyone.

R45 Awww, I'm happy for them. I knew Moret's Huffpo letter saying Darren cut off contact was from 2011 but I couldn't find anything more recent.

I saw him on an episode of Love Boat last week. He was keeping stats on Arnold Horshack, who was about to break the world record for sex partners.

I loved him in all the Gidget pictures.

Before Star Wars John Williams did pretty good television sci fi themes

His son and grandson.

You are right R15. I am wrong. It was Tommy Sands, Nancy was married to.

Frank knew Tommy Sands was Gay, and he would have killed Sands if he could've gotten away with it.

The grandson got the Ercolani looks the son was denied.

OK, rereading this thread (which I didn't even remember), I've now W/W'd at least 4 posts that I wrote 5 months ago.

I like me. I really like me!

I watched him The Time Tunnel as a kid but never had sexual thoughts about him. I wasn't attracted to adults.

Make it real

TEENAGE TRIANGLE means more to me than all the smelly hippies at Woodstock.

[quote]My first child-hood TV crush from watching re-runs of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”.

HUH? James Darren was not on VttBotS. Now, David Hedison - he was one handsome guy.

But, he was Vic Fontaine on DS9, so he gets his sci fi cred from that.

[quote]If Hugh O'Brian was gay there'd by 100s of stories about him from former lovers and hook-ups. He was way hotter than Rock Hudson. I suspect he was just asexual and not interested in sex with anyone.

Please. Closeted celebrities are always being deemed "asexual" on DL. There must be an epidemic of asexuality in Hollywood that's lasted for decades.

David Hedison played one of Nancy's boyfriends on Family. The one who was pressuring her to get married, but she gets interested in another guy (Tommy Lee Jones).

Ooops, this is r1.

You're right r59. I conflated my two childhood crushes Hedison and Darren and misidentified Darren as the regular cast member on VttBotS.

I was still raised right, r2.

As of today, you don't know how true this thread title is.

The movie he was in with Shelley Winters was good. It was a gritty, black and white movie and not a teenage heartthrob movie.

He was like a narrower, humorless version of Max Baer, Jr.

Susan Dey will be sending her condolences shortly.

I'm glad those mid sixties beach movies died. They were just awful. I could not stand Annette Funicello, either. There, I said it.

James Darren (1936) and Nancy Sinatra (1940) both had the same birthday: "June 8."

Sounds like an asshole if he couldn’t handle his son saying he abandoned him. Which he reacted to by abandoning him (again)

[quote]I'm glad those mid sixties beach movies died. They were just awful. I could not stand Annette Funicello, either. There, I said it.

American International cheapies that were of their time and made for drive-ins. Hardly worth getting upset about.

Always thought he was very hot. Even when I was a wee young man.

We do have stars like James Darren, that's the trouble. Hot, likeable mediocrities.

Aside from the Gidget movies that made him famous, he was never in any of the beach party movies. I think he did two or three Gidgets but they were more about coming of age than beach blanket bingo. I could not stand Annette Funicello either. But her guy in those movies was Frankie Avalon. The whole genre was very formulaic and not too different from the coming of age movies and adolescent bullshit we're seeing today. The niavete and quaintness of the 50's and 60's is very annoying.

But didn't the Beach movies get more risque as time went on? I'm recalling one of the latter ones in the series where I could swear it's suggested that Frankie fingered Annette...

Are you sure that wasn't Harvey Lembeck, r74?

What's Lee Meriwether doing these days? I last saw her about 20 years ago on 'Space Ghost'. She must have made $$$ from that 'Barnaby Jones' show.

Lee Meriwether is 89 years old and probably not getting many acting offers.