Actor Christopher Knight, perhaps best known for his role as Peter Brady on early ’70s sitcom The Brady Bunch, has likened the gay actor who played his TV dad to a real-life father in a recent interview with HuffPo Live.

Speaking of Robert Reed, the Emmy-nominated actor who played Brady patriarch Mike Brady from 1969-1974, Knight says he played a crucial role in forming his progressive views on LGBT rights and gay men in general. Reed “was as good or better a father figure than my own dad,” he says, adding that Reed remains “not just an icon” but his own “personal hero.”

“I learned very early that if that was what gay was, it has no measure in the ability of somebody to be a fine representation of a good human being,” said Knight.

Reed was out to his family, close friends and coworkers, though he never officially came out in the public eye over fear that it would damage his acting career. He died from colon cancer in 1992 at the age of 59, though his doctor listed his HIV-positive status as a contributing factor to his death.

Check out the rest of Knight’s interview below.

Side note: Did you know how seriously sexy young Mike Brady was? Check out a few screenshots of Robert Reed taken from a 1966 episode of Family Affair below the video.