“Top” Ten Losses of 2024: James Darren (#9)

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Yes, I’m up early. My next-door neighbor needed my crutches to use at the funeral home today. Before I head out I’m going to present another person we lost in 2024 that meant a lot to me. This is someone who could have been on the music list, too. #9: James Darren And he would have been, except for one thing: I initially knew James Darren as an actor, NOT a singer. Ah, the late 60s, the world of Irwin Allen sci-fi TV shows. One of them was The Time Tunnel, which was one of the sneakiest ways ever devised to teach history. The premise was a top-secret project was about to be scrapped by the government, so two of the scientists involved in it deliberately sent themselves off to somewhere to prove the project’s worthiness. (Side note, because you just CANNOT make this stuff up: the government project was known as “Project Tick Tock.” ) They ended up on the deck of the Titanic in the first episode. It was a little hokey (something like the 60s version of Quantum Leap, except they kept their own bodies and clothes), but dang it was a good show. In fact, I’d watch that over just about any AI/CGI “sci-fi” thing we have today. That was my intro to James Darren. And, since he was cute, what was I going to say? “No”? Ah, but he also had a singing career with the acting career. That was necessary because of the Gidget movies, I guess…where everybody went on the beach, danced, and sang. Hooray for Moondoggie! Darren did have serious roles, such as in the acclaimed war film The Guns of Navarone and in the TV series Star Trek Deep Space Nine. It wasn’t just the beach party all the time. Darren passed away in September at the age of 88, leaving behind two solid careers and a lot of old people who fondly remember him in his youth. Like me. James Darren Born James William Ercolani, June 8, 1936, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Died September 2, 2024, Los Angeles, California (congestive heart failure) (age 88) Here’s Darren’s biggest hit as a singer, the top five hit “Goodbye Cruel World”: