Though born James Jackson Bullock (sometimes credited as JM J Bullock) in Casper, Wyoming, Bullock spent his formative years in the West Texas city of Odessa, where his father worked in the oil industry. He started acting in student productions at Permian High School.

Growing up in a family of God-fearing Southern Baptists, Bullock says his teen years were fraught with confusion about his sexual orientation. He studied at a private, conservative, Southern Baptist university in Shawnee, Oklahoma (Oklahoma Baptist University). It was during Bullock's second year there that he first began to embrace his sexuality.

Leaving college after two years, he spent a summer in Dallas performing in a dinner theater production of Godspell, then went home to Odessa and worked at a truck stop for six months ("I serviced the trucks - not the truckers," he says). He saved up enough money to move to Hollywood.

Barely able to survive in L.A., he worked as a busboy, a waiter and a courier while doing stand-up comedy at night. After several years, the Comedy Store's legendary proprietress Mitzi Shore (Pauly's mom) started inviting him to perform at special showcase events for ABC, which eventually offered him the role on Too Close For Comfort. While the character of Monroe was not intended to be gay, the character was definitely perceived that way.

After six seasons, the show ended with the sudden death of its star, Ted Knight. Bullock became a regular on TV game shows like Hollywood Squares and later had a recurring role in the NBC series Alf. In 1995, he was approached by FOX-TV to do a talk show with Tammy Faye Bakker. The Jm J. And Tammy Faye Show lasted just six months.

One month after the show was canceled, he lost his lover, John, to AIDS related complications. Bullock, who had been diagnosed in 1985, was outed as HIV-positive in 1997. Several years later, Bullock would be back in the tabloids, this time for drug abuse. "After John passed away, I got involved in the circuit scene," he says. "I went to Fire Island and Florida and Vegas and all the circuit events in Southern California. What happened was, I got lost in it."

After developing an addiction to crystal methamphetamine, he checked himself into an outpatient rehab program. He had been off crystal for several months when he had a relapse. Bullock was able to avoid jail time by undergoing more rehab. And when his probation ends next summer, the arrest will be stricken from his record.

Through it all, Bullock has relied on his sense of humor to keep life in perspective. He's also hung onto his spiritual faith, though he says he now finds it impossible to imagine "a God that would hate someone because of something as stupid as their sexual orientation."

Bullock says he returns to Odessa about once a year to visit his parents, who just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. He finally came out to them, confirming what they had long suspected.

Jim is now active in LA theatre, and starring in an off-Broadway play called The End of the World Party at the 47th Street Theater in New York.