After Apollo 8, Mr Lovell was, of course, the Commander of the ill fated Apollo 13. He is the only man to have flown to the moon twice without landing.
When the film “Apollo 13” was made with Tom Hanks portraying Lovell, director Ron Howard had the nice idea of offering Lovell a cameo. He played the naval officer who greeted Hanks when he was picked up after splashdown.
Lovell had been a captain in the US Navy. Howard suggested he should play an Admiral, to lend the role a certain dramatic gravitas. Lovell would have none of it. He put on his old captain’s uniform and said “I retired as a captain and a captain I will be.”
It was a measure of the man. In an age that isn’t making many of them, he was a true American hero.