Chuck Connors was my father figure as Lucas McCain.

I was born in 1952 and my parents split up when I was 5 in '57 and I didn't see my Dad again and he was all I wanted so it seemed I naturally gravitated to seeing Lucas McCain, a widower raising his young son alone and he was so openly affectionate and loving towards him.
I never realized until I was an adult why the ending of The Wyoming Story Part 2 affected me so emotionally until my mother explained when I was 4 my Dad was gone and in the hospital for so long that I thought he would never come back. Then one day when I was on our back porch upstairs he suddenly appeared at the far end of our back yard by the trees and stood there. My mother said when I saw him I tore down our open back stairway, almost falling, and ran across the backyard and jumped into his arms kissing him.

My Dad died in 1970 when I was just 18 and would have been able to form a relationship with him on my own and I never had that chance and never had the opportunity to say goodbye. It was in 1986 that I read that Chuck Connors had gone to the hospital because he was sick and I felt compelled to write him a letter and tell him what his role as Lucas McCain in The Rifleman had meant to me, feeling I had to let him know this in case he died as well. I had really done this for my own peace of mind so I was surprised when a few weeks later I received a big envelope in the mail. In it was an 8X10 autographed b&w photo of Chuck Connors as The Rifleman and he wrote, "Steve, be happy, you're a great guy. Chuck Connors, 3/86".
It also included a personal letter from him telling me that he was honored to have had the role of Lucas McCain and happy that he was able to have such a positive impact on my life when I was a little boy. His response meant a lot to me and I still have that photo and letter.
Ironically he was born just a few months after my Dad and he did die less than 7 years later.
But thanks to MeTv I get to see The Rifleman more often than I ever have.