Was an active Republican.
Was an altar boy and parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
Was best friends with: Joey Bishop, Regis Philbin, Charlton Heston, Richard Nixon, Burt Lancaster, Gerald Ford and Leonid Brezhnev.
Was elected to the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1991.
Years after "The Rifleman" (1958), he was a spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the early 1970s.