Actor Jack Larson has died at the age of 87, and led, by all accounts, a fascinating life.

Best known for playing Jimmy Olsen on the classic 50s series The Adventures Of Superman, Jack was a reluctant TV star, and took his most famous role thinking it would be short-lived. He was shocked when this wasn't the case.

Larson refused to do publicity for the series, hoping it would just go away. It didn’t.

"I wouldn’t do a magazine interview, I wouldn’t do anything, because I thought everything I do as Jimmy Olsen publicity is just a further nail in my coffin as an actor," he said.

His contract kept him from doing much of anything else, and Larson would appear on Superman for six seasons.

Jack and Noel Neill in 2002

In later life, Jack eventually embraced Jimmy Olsen, appearing in a 1991 episode of the TV series Superboy with Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in Adventures of Superman, and an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman as an older version of Jimmy.

He also had a cameo as a bartender in 2006's Superman Returns, meeting another Superman, Brandon Routh.

But his life post-Jimmy Olsen was even more interesting: A onetime companion of Montgomery Clift, Jack fell in love with filmmaker James Bridges (The Paper Chase, The China Syndrome, Urban Cowboy) in 1958, and the two spent 35 years together until James' death in 1993.

The couple never hid their relationship.

"It was obvious to anyone that since we lived together we were partners," Larson said. "We always went places together. We never pretended. I always did what I felt like doing. I never did publicity when I was very popular as Jimmy. The question [about being gay] never came up."

Jack and James started a production company together, producing Bright Lights, Big City among other films, while Jack also had a flourishing career as a playwright, and wrote the libretto for the opera Lord Byron.

Our thoughts go out to Jack's family and friends.