He was the kind of star who seemed to live in several eras at once, his face evolving but never quite leaving the screen. As Moondoggie in Gidget, he walked out of the waves and straight into pop culture history, becoming the soundtrack and poster on a million bedroom walls. Yet the teenage heartthrob never settled for a single role. He sang, recorded albums, and kept reinventing himself, moving from silver screen to television with the same unforced ease that made him feel like someone you’d always known.
