At the time of his death, along with Armando Silvestre, he was the oldest living actor and one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.

Although his family's economic problems kept him from attending high school, he joined seminaries in Temascalcingo, Estado de México, and Mexico City to continue his education.

[citation needed] López Tarso worked in Mexico City as a sales agent for a clothing company.

[citation needed] While López was in physical therapy, he read books on poetry and theatre, and became a fan of author Xavier Villaurrutia.

After his recovery, he heard that Villaurrutia was teaching theatre at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, so he visited him, initially to ask for his autograph, but then was invited to listen in on his lessons.

He would also perform in several William Shakespeare plays such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear.

López Tarso's film debut was in 1954, when he played a minor character in La desconocida, which was directed by Chano Urueta.

[4][5] He played the title character Macario, a supernatural drama directed by Roberto Gavaldón set on the Day of the Dead.

Besides film, López Tarso appeared in over twenty television series, and released eight albums, in many of which he recited poems and corridos about the Mexican Revolution.

Between 1988 and 1991 he served as a federal deputy, representing Mexico City's eighth district for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).