After the original “Gidget” movie, in 1959, Hollywood churned out any number of sequels. “Gidget Grows Up.” “Gidget Goes to Rome.” “Gidget Gets Married.” And so on. Half a century later, the onetime ...

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 ...

James Darren, the teen idol who famously played dreamy surfer Moondoggie in the "Gidget" films of the 1950s and 1960s and segued into roles behind the camera, has died. He was 88. Darren died Monday ...