Burt Ward has insisted Adam West's death "should not have happened".
The 77-year-old actor played Robin the 1960s TV series 'Batman' alongside Adam West - who died in 2017 after a short battle with leukemia at the age of 88 - in the title role and has refelected ahead of the fifth anniversary of his friend's death that he should have had "many years" ahead.
Burt told Fox News Digital: "It wasn't supposed to happen. This really bothered me. His death - this shouldn't have happened. I knew Adam was not feeling well. He had gone to the hospital for some tests. I later learned that he had leukemia. But I truly believed he had many years ahead of him."
The TV stars were on tour together meeting fans when Adam initially took ill and Burt went on to add that he decided to continue with the pre-booked dates but felt so "heartbroken" when he was singing autographs and looked over at the empty seat beside him.
He added: "After he died, I continued with the rest of our tour because it had already been pre-booked all across the country. As I signed autographs and met fans, I would look over to my right. There was that other table with an empty chair. That was tough. I was just so heartbroken. He was always busy doing stuff. He always made plans for the future. I don't think anyone expected him to be gone so quickly. I certainly wasn't expecting it.
"We could just sit down and not have anything to talk about, and within minutes, we were just laughing, reminiscing, talking about current events and remembering the good times. Whenever he came over to my house, we just had the greatest time. My wife adored him. I remember when he first met her, and he was just so gracious. We hugged, and he just admired the beautiful diamond ring I got her. He was truly the funniest, nicest guy. Gosh, just thinking about him. I miss him so much. He should be here."