Bobby Darin is not related to James Darren. Confusion sometimes arises because their names are pronounced similarly, they were born in 1936, they started their careers as teen idols with similarly styled songs, they both later sang some of the same standard pop-jazz ballads, and they are both associated with Gidget. James Darren starred in “Gidget” films as Gidget’s (Sandra Dee) love interest. In real life, Darin was the love interest: he married Sandra Dee.

Darin’s career took off with a songwriting partnership, formed in 1955 with Don Kirshner, whom he met at a candy store in Washington Heights. They wrote jingles and songs, beginning with “Bubblegum Pop”. In 1956 his agent negotiated a contract with Decca Records. The songs recorded at Decca had very little success.

Guided by Atlantic’s star-maker Ahmet Ertegun, Darin’s career finally took off in 1958 when he recorded “Splish Splash”. He co-wrote the song with radio D.J. Murray Kaufman after a phone call from Kaufman’s mother, Jean, a frustrated songwriter. Her latest song idea was: “Splish, Splash, Take a Bath”. Both Kaufman and Darin felt the title was lackluster, but Darin, with few options, said “I could write a song with that title.” Within one hour, Darin had written “Splish Splash”. The single, Darin’s first successful foray into the rock and roll genre, sold more than a million copies. His partnership with Kirshner, who was not involved in the writing of that song, ended at that time. He made another recording in 1958 for Brunswick Records with a band called “The Ding Dongs”. With the success of “Splish Splash” the single was re-released by Atco Records as “Early in the Morning” with the band renamed as “The Rinky Dinks”. It charted, and made it to number 24 in the United States.

In 1959, Darin recorded the self-penned “Dream Lover”, a ballad that became a multi-million seller. With it came financial success and the ability to demand more creative control of his career. So he meant for his That’s All album to show that he could sing more than rock and roll. His next single, “Mack the Knife”, the standard from Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera, was given a vamping jazz-pop interpretation. Although Darin was initially opposed to releasing it as a single, the song went to No. 1 on the charts for nine weeks, sold two million copies, and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1960. Darin was also voted the Grammy Award for Best New Artist that year, and “Mack The Knife” has since been honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

Darin’s 1960 recording of “Artificial Flowers” – a song by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock from the Broadway musical Tenderloin, about the death of a child laborer – featured a jazzy, Big Band arrangement (by Richard Behrke), that was in sharp contrast to its tragic lyrics.

Darin married actress Sandra Dee on December 1, 1960. They met while filming Come September (which was released in 1961). On December 16, 1961, they had a son, Dodd Mitchell Darin (also known as Morgan Mitchell Darin). Dee and Darin divorced on March 7, 1967.

His first major film, Come September (1961), was a teenager-oriented romantic comedy with Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida and featuring 18-year-old actress Sandra Dee. They met during the production of the film, and got married soon afterward. Dee gave birth to a son, Dodd Mitchell Darin (also known as Morgan Mitchell) on December 16, 1961. Dee and Darin made a few films together with moderate success. They divorced in 1967.

In 1961 he starred in Too Late Blues, John Cassavetes’ first film for a major Hollywood studio, as a struggling jazz musician. Writing in 2012, Los Angeles Times critic Dennis Lim observed that Darin was “a surprise in his first nonsinging role, willing to appear both arrogant and weak.” In 1962, Darin won the Golden Globe Award for “New Star of the Year – Actor” for his role in Come September. The following year he was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe for Pressure Point.

In 1962, Darin began to write and sing country music, with hit songs including “Things” (US No. 3/UK #2) (1962), “You’re the Reason I’m Living” (US No. 3), and “18 Yellow Roses” (US No. 10). The latter two were recorded by Capitol Records, which he joined in 1962, before returning to Atlantic three years later. Darin left Capitol in 1964. In 1966, he had his final UK hit single, with a version of Tim Hardin’s “If I Were A Carpenter”, which peaked at No. 9 (No. 8 in the US). He performed the opening and closing songs on the soundtrack of the 1965 Walt Disney film That Darn Cat!. “Things” was sung by Dean Martin in the 1967 TV special Movin’ With Nancy, starring Nancy Sinatra.

In 1963, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a shell-shocked soldier in Captain Newman, M.D..

In October 1964, he appeared as a wounded ex-convict who is befriended by an orphan girl in “The John Gillman Story” episode of NBC’s Wagon Train western television series.

Darin became more politically active as the 1960s progressed, and his musical output became more “folksy.” In 1966, he had a hit with folksinger Tim Hardin’s “If I Were a Carpenter,” securing a return to the Top 10 after a two-year absence.

Darin believed his mother Nina was instead his elder sister and that Polly, who had raised him from birth, was his mother. In 1968, when he was 32 and considering entering politics, Nina told him the truth, reportedly devastating Darin. She refused to reveal the identity of his biological father, and kept that secret to her death in 1983.

Darin traveled with Robert F. Kennedy and worked on the politician’s 1968 presidential campaign. He was with Kennedy the day he traveled to Los Angeles on June 4, 1968, for the California primary, and was at the Ambassador Hotel later that night when Kennedy was assassinated. That event, combined with learning about his true parentage, had a deep effect on Darin, who spent most of the next year living in seclusion in a trailer near Big Sur.

Returning to Los Angeles in 1969, Darin started his own record label which was titled Direction Records, putting out folk and protest music. Bobby wrote “Simple Song of Freedom” in 1969, which, in an interesting turn of events, was first recorded by Tim Hardin and the song became Hardin’s best selling record. Bobby himself sang the song “live” on several television variety shows to great effect.

Darin’s second wife was Andrea Yeager, a legal secretary he met in 1970 and married on June 25, 1973, after the couple had lived together for three years. Four months later, in October 1973, the couple divorced amid strain caused by Darin’s worsening health problems.

Darin suffered from poor health his entire life. He was frail as an infant and, beginning at age eight, was stricken with recurring bouts of rheumatic fever that left him with a seriously weakened heart. During his first heart surgery, in January 1971, he had two artificial valves implanted in his heart. He spent most of that year recovering from the surgery.

Beginning on July 27, 1972, he starred in his own television variety show on NBC, Dean Martin Presents: The Bobby Darin Amusement Company, which ran for seven episodes ending on September 7, 1972. Beginning on January 19, 1973, he starred in a similar show on NBC called The Bobby Darin Show. That show ran for 13 episodes ending on April 27, 1973. Darin subsequently made television guest appearances and remained a top draw.

In 1973, after failing to take antibiotics to protect his heart before a dental visit, Darin developed sepsis, an overwhelming systemic infection. That further weakened his body and affected one of his heart valves. On December 11, he checked himself into Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles for another round of open-heart surgery to repair the two artificial heart valves he had received in January 1971. On the evening of December 19, a five-person surgical team worked for over six hours to repair his damaged heart. Shortly after the surgery ended in the early morning hours of December 20, 1973, Darin died in the recovery room without regaining consciousness. He was 37 years old.

In 1986, director Barry Levinson intended to direct a film based on Darin’s life, and had begun preproduction on the project by early 1997. He abandoned the project, the rights to which were subsequently bought by actor Kevin Spacey, along with Darin’s son, Dodd. The resultant biopic, Beyond the Sea, starred Spacey as Darin, with the actor using his own singing voice for the musical numbers. The film covers much of Darin’s life and career, including his marriage to Sandra Dee, portrayed by Kate Bosworth.

In 1990, Darin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with singer and close friend Paul Anka announcing the honor. In 1999, Darin was voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

On May 14, 2007, Darin was awarded a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars to honor his contribution to making Las Vegas the “Entertainment Capital of the World” and named him one of the twentieth century’s greatest entertainers. Fans paid for the star. Darin also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On December 13, 2009, at its 2010 Grammy Awards ceremony, the Recording Academy awarded Darin a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award.

In September 2016, Dream Lover: The Bobby Darin Musical had its world premiere at Sydney Lyric Theatre, Australia. The production featured the story of Darin with an 18-piece big band. Darin was played by David Campbell. Darin had an unusual upbringing, being raised by a “mother” who was actually his grandmother and alongside a “sister” who was actually his mother, a fact he did not discover until he was 31 years old. Campbell grew up in a similar circumstance, leading Bobby’s son Dodd Darin to describe Campbell as perfect for the role, stating, “You have to have lived something like that to understand it and [Campbell] has, and I think he can relate to my dad, he can relate to the pain.” Campbell made similar observations, describing playing Darin as a “cathartic experience” and stating, “I feel like I’m healing things during this show.” The production was nominated in six categories in the 18th Helpmann Awards, including for Best Musical, with Campbell receiving the Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Musical.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Bobby Darin among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.