James Darren

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia   James William Ercolani known by his stage name James Darren is an American television and film actor television director and singer He wanted to be an actor and studied in New York City with Stella Adler for a number of years He would also occasionally sing although he later said I wasnt really a singer I was a kid in Philly whose dad would take him to bars and nightclubs and I would get up and sing two songs Darren was discovered by talent agent and casting director Joyce Selznick after he got some photographs taken by Maurice Seymour to show potential agents His secretary a woman by the name of Yvonne Bouvier asked me if I was interested in getting into film I said yeah I was She said I know someone you should meet She set up a meeting between me and Joyce Selznick who worked for Screen Gems Joyce brought me over to Columbia Pictures about a week later and got me a contract there Columbia signed Darren to a long term contract in July 1956 A few weeks later he was filming his first film Rumble on the Docks His appearance was well received and he got a lot of fan mail second at the studio only to Kim Novak Darren guest starred on an episode of TVs The Web Kill and Run then Columbia gave him a support role in an A picture the comedy Operation Mad Ball starring Jack Lemmon He had support roles in two films directed by Phil Karlson The Brothers Rico and Gunmans Walk In between he was in The Tijuana Story although his role was relatively small Darren was third billed in the surf film Gidget He also sang the title track The film was a hit with teen audiences and so was the song Darren wound up recording a string of pop hits for Colpix Records the biggest of which was Goodbye Cruel World It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc Another sizeable hit was Her Royal Majesty He is also featured in one of the Scopitone series of pop music video jukebox films Because Youre Mine Darren was third billed in a series of films for Columbia The Gene Krupa Story All the Young Men and Let No Man Write My Epitaph He had a cameo as himself in a teen film Because Theyre Young singing the title track Darren had a supporting role in the World War II film The Guns of Navarone Also popular was Gidget Goes Hawaiian where Darren reprised his role as Moondoggie he was given top billing Darren also acted in Diamond Head as well as a third time in Gidget Goes to Rome which he sang the title track for Under the Yum Yum Tree In 1963 Darren signed a seven picture deal with Universal starting with The Lively Set He was the singing voice of Yogi Bear in the animated film Hey There Its Yogi Bear on the song Vene Veno Vena He was the singing voice of his own character Jimmy Darrock on an episode of The Flintstones However the characters dialogue was provided by voice actor Lennie Weinrib He subsequently launched a career as a director notably of actionbased series including Hunter The ATeam Silk Stalkings Renegade and Nowhere Man as well as dramas such as Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place Description above from the Wikipedia article James Darren licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia