Dear Jill 'Parasocial' relationships with leading celebrities are a modern phenomenon. In the first five years of his role in Marcus Welby MD, the actor Robert Young received more than 250,000 letters from viewers, mostly asking for medical advice.
Parasocial relationships are one-sided.
They are conducted between one person, usually a television viewer, and an image. In extreme cases the image is a cartoon character. They were real people. Those interacting with them didn't know them, but obviously felt that they did. It takes something like the death of a media figure for the strength of that attachment to be recognised.