James Darren once starred at Gateway Playhouse in Bellport

James Darren, who appeared in several "Gidget" films of the late 1950s and early '60s as surfer dude Moondoggie, once rode the wave of his screen popularity all the way to the shores of Long Island.

The pop star and actor who died on Monday at age 88 starred in a three-week production of the sex farce "Under the Yum Yum Tree" at Bellport's Gateway Playhouse in June 1961. Also in the show with Darren was Deborah Walley, who played opposite him in "Gidget Goes Hawaiian," which had just hit movie screens. The stars were brought to Gateway as part of an arrangement with Columbia Pictures to bring actors from the studio's then-current films to the Long Island theater. Two years later, Darren sang the theme song for Columbia's film version of "Under the Yum Yum Tree" with Dean Jones in Darren's role.

Accompanying Darren to Bellport was his second wife, Evy Norlund, a former Miss Denmark to whom he was still married at the time of his death. Darren's grandparents in New Jersey took care of the couple's infant son, Christian, during the show's run.

Darren returned to Long Island in August 1974 when he opened for comedian Buddy Hackett at the Westbury Music Fair (they also played the venue in 1981). In an interview with Los Angeles Magazine in 2015, Darren recalled meeting Hackett after a performance of Nancy Sinatra's show at L.A.'s Cocoanut Grove nightclub. The comic asked Darren if he'd like to work with him. They ended up playing 14 weeks at the Sahara in Las Vegas and then touring the country together including the stop at Westbury. When asked what he learned from Hackett about performing in clubs, Darren told the magazine: "Everything."