James William Ercolani (Filadèlfia, Pennsilvània, 8 de juny de 1936), conegut artísticament com James Darren, és un actor de cinema i televisió nord-americà.

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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 wasn't 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 TV's 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 Gunman's 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 You're 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 They're 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, It's Yogi Bear!, on the song "Ven-e, Ven-o, Ven-a". He was the singing voice of his own character "Jimmy Darrock" on an episode of The Flintstones. However the character's dialogue was provided by voice actor Lennie Weinrib. He subsequently launched a career as a director, notably of action-based series , including Hunter, The A-Team, 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 CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

James Darren (* 8. Juni 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; eigentlich James William Ercolani) ist ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler, Sänger sowie Regisseur von Fernsehserien.

Entdeckt wurde er von Joyce Selznick, der Nichte des Filmproduzenten David O. Selznick, die ihm im Jahr 1956 einen ersten Filmvertrag bei Columbia Pictures vermittelte. Es folgten erste Nebenrollen in Kinofilmen verschiedener Genres, die 1959 in seinen ersten größeren Erfolg mit der Teenagerkomödie April entdeckt die Männer (Originaltitel Gidget) mündeten, für die er auch das Titellied einsang. Anschließend spielte er in weiteren Film-Fortsetzungen von Gidget, was ihn zeitweise zu einem beliebten Star bei Teenagern machte, wenngleich er damit nicht den Respekt der meisten Kritiker erreichen konnte. Ab Anfang der 1960er-Jahre startete er eine Musikkarriere und veröffentlichte Lieder, von denen einige in den Charts landeten, wenn auch der Platz 50 selten unterschritten wurde. Seine Musik ähnelte im Stil der seines Freundes Frank Sinatra.

Ab 1966 erhielt Darren seine erste Fernseh-Hauptrolle in der Serie Time Tunnel, in der er den impulsiven Wissenschaftler und Abenteuerer Tony Newman verkörperte. Auch trat er in Die Seaview – In geheimer Mission als Gaststar in der Folge Der Android auf. Nach der Einstellung von Time Tunnel versandete Darrens Schauspielkarriere allerdings zusehends, in den 1970er-Jahren war er überwiegend mit Fernseh-Gastrollen und Auftritten in Nachtclubs unterwegs.

1982 hatte er an der Seite von William Shatner in der Fernsehserie T.J. Hooker ein kleines Comeback, als er in dieser in insgesamt 66 Folgen den Polizisten James Corrigan spielte. Danach arbeitete er eher hinter der Kamera und führte bei einigen Folgen von Beverly Hills 90210, Hunter oder auch Palm Beach-Duo die Regie. Zwischen 1998 und 1999 war er in der Rolle des holographischen Sängers Vic Fontaine in mehreren Folgen der Science-Fiction-Serie Star Trek: Deep Space Nine zu sehen. Nach längerer Inaktivität als Filmschauspieler trat Darren im Jahr 2017 in einer Nebenrolle in der Tragikomödie Lucky auf.