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Lorenzo Semple Jr, the creator of the 1960s TV incarnation of Batman, died on March 28, the day after his 91st birthday.

Semple was a prolific screenwriter, penning the classic escape movie Papillon in 1973 as well as The Drowning Pool in 1975, and Three Days of the Condor the same year. In addition to Batman, for which he wrote the pilot and three other episodes, he wrote the script for the 1976 version of King Kong, the 1980 Flash Gordon, and the 1984 adaptation of Sheena Queen of the Jungle, as well as the 1983 unofficial 007 movie Never Say Never Again.

“I think Batman was the best thing I ever wrote, including those big movies,” he told the Archive of American Television in 2011. “As a whole work, it came out the way that I wanted it to and I was excited by it. I once went down to a fancy wine tasting benefit in Princeton. When people found out I wrote Batman they mobbed me! I was astounded, but that was the way it was.”