James Darren an actor director and singer who had his breakout role of moond doggy in the 1959 movie gigit died Monday at age 888 variety reported the Entertainer died at Cedar siai Hospital in Los Angeles according to variety citing his son Jim morette a chief correspondent for Inside Edition CNN has saw comment from Darren and morette's agents in response to a post paying tribute to Darren on X from singer Nancy Sinatra Moret responded Nancy my father loved you thank you so much for your kind and loving words Darren had a lengthy resume spanning across film and television starting as early as 1956 according to IMDb but his role in Gig helped him reach heartthrob status in the eyes of teenage movie goers in a 2015 interview with Los Angeles magazine he was asked when he first realized he was a Hollywood sensation the defining moment was when I was at a studio in San Francisco and word got out that I was there Darren said in the interview thousands of girls were screaming out front when I had to leave the building they tackled me to the ground and pulled pieces of my hair out the police had to rescue me and took me to the roof until things settled down it was total pandemonium