The Only Major Actors Still Alive From Family Affair
CBS' "Family Affair" wasn't the biggest sitcom of its era, nor was it the most groundbreaking, but it popularized a found-family formula that would endure for decades after its original run. The series followed a lifelong bachelor, Bill (Brian Keith), whose lifestyle is interrupted by the sudden arrival of his three orphaned nieces and nephews. Clueless about parenthood yet suddenly the dad of three grieving kids, Bill recruited the help of several other characters throughout the series — most notably, his loyal British manservant, French (Sebastian Cabot).
"Family Affair" ran for five seasons on CBS beginning in 1966, and though it doesn't appear in syndication as often as other shows from its era, the series is still fondly remembered by those who saw it. Unfortunately, the show is also remembered for the unusual amount of tragedy that befell its stars. Child star Anissa Jones died of an overdose just five years after the show ended, with news reports indicating that she'd been prescribed drugs by a pill-farming doctor who also died while in the middle of a lawsuit over her death. Cabot passed away after a stroke a year later, and Keith died by apparent suicide in 1997 after struggles including a battle with cancer.
The "Family Affair" cast has endured a whole lot of sadness, but two actors from the series are still with us today, their lives clearly changed by the experiences they had on the show and in the complicated aftermath.
Kathy Garver (Cissy)
Former child star Kathy Garver began acting at a very young age, but "Family Affair" marked her breakthrough role. She played older sister Cissy on the series and continued working in TV and film after it came to a close. She appeared in shows like "Matlock" and "Nash Bridges," popped up in sometimes uncredited roles in films like "The Princess Diaries" and "The Bad Seed," and appeared in several TV movies, but Garver's most prolific work since the show has been as a voice actor.
Garver studied speech at UCLA and has done voice work for two "Spider-Man" shows as well as the animated "Happy Days" spinoff and "The New Yogi Bear" show. She acted in "The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas" and has been awarded four Audies for her work as an audiobook narrator and director, according to her website biography. The same site also notes that Garver has worked as a TV host, created a line of candles and lotions, acted in a recent "Family Affair" spinoff called "Aunt Cissy" (per IMDb, the show seems to have filmed episodes but never aired), and authored both "The Family Affair Cookbook" and a 2015 memoir, "Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood."
The former child actress has been frank about her relative normalcy in the face of fame, as her site notes that she doesn't suffer from any of the "sometimes exaggerated maladies" young actors often deal with. Her memoir does feature a story in which "This is Alice" filmmaker Sidney Salkow drives her to tears by insulting her acting (seemingly to make her cry for a scene). She also writes about the need for reform in the rights of child stars, referencing Coogan's Law and the work of A Minor Consideration, the kid actor-supporting org started by "The Donna Reed Show" alum Paul Petersen.
Johnny Whitaker (Jody)
While Garver played older sister Cissy in "Family Affair," young actor Johnny Whitaker took on the role of Jody, the six-year-old twin to Buffy (Jones). After his time on the show, Whitaker continued acting, playing Tom Sawyer in a 1973 adaptation of the Mark Twain classic and appearing in several other movies during the early '70s, including "Napoleon & Samantha," "The Biscuit Eater," "Snowball Express," and the Steven Spielberg-directed TV film "Something Evil."
Whitaker also led the Saturday morning kids' show "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters," and appeared in five episodes of a 2016 reboot of the show. He and Garver both appeared in a Tim Curry-led "Family Affair" remake that only lasted one season on the WB. According to Garver's memoir, Whitaker at one point left Hollywood and "found a job repairing computers at CBS then joined his sister Dora's theatrical agency." The two surviving co-stars seem to have a complicated relationship, as Whitaker surprised Garver on an episode of "Oprah: Where Are They Now?" in 2016 (per HuffPost) and apologized for anything he may have done to cause "bad blood."
The former child star has been open about his own struggles with addiction. By 2011, according to the LA Daily News, he was working as a sobriety counselor and liaison for multiple programs, including a multi-lingual recovery program he founded called Paso Por Paso. Whitaker told the outlet that after Jones' death, he decided to spend more time building a "regular" teen life. However, he says he began using drugs after his divorce, getting clean after about a decade. According to his website, Whitaker recently finished co-directing and producing a film and is working on both a memoir and a documentary about Portuguese drug policies. He's now a Certified Addiction Counselor and Advocate, per the site.