“Family Affair”'s Johnny Whitaker reflects on demands of being a child star: 'I didn't know I was not normal'
“Family Affair”'s Johnny Whitaker reflects on demands of being a child star: 'I didn't know I was not normal'
Kathleen PerriconeFri, May 8, 2026 at 2:42 AM UTC
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Johnny Whitaker as Jody on 'Family Affair' in 1967
Credit: Ken Whitmore/TV Guide/Courtesy Everett CollectionKey Points
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Family Affair actor Johnny Whitaker reflects on the demands of being a child star during the CBS sitcom's run from 1966 to 1971.
Whitaker was cast as Jody, twin brother of Buffy (played by Anissa Jones), when he was just 6.
By the second season, Whitaker and Jones were working seven days a week between filming he show and doing promotional tours.
The life of a Hollywood child star can be a rocky road, but for Family Affair's Johnny Whitaker it was the only path he knew.
Acting professionally since the age of 3, the Los Angeles native was only 6 when he was cast as Jody, one of three orphans raised by their wealthy bachelor uncle Bill (Brian Keith), on the CBS sitcom that ran for five seasons from 1966 to 1971.
'Family Affair' cast: Johnny Whitaker, Sebastian Cabot, Brian Keith, Anissa Jones, Kathy Garver
Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
It didn't take long for audiences to fall in love with freckle-faced Whitaker and his TV twin sister Buffy, played by Anissa Jones.
"Being a child star and a child actor, everybody loves you," Whitaker, now 66, told Woman’s World in a new interview. "You're always coddled and cuddled and loved, and all of us are looking for acceptance and love. So of course I liked that."
But the little boy had to work hard to earn that adoration.
At the time, "I didn't really know that I was acting," he admitted. "I knew that not all young boys leave the house at 7:00 a.m. nine months out of the year, go to the set by 8:00, go to school, go on set, go to lunch, go back to school, go back to set, come home… and start it all over five days a week. That was normal for me. I didn't necessarily know that I was not normal, but I knew that it was not usual and customary."
By the second season, Whitaker and Jones were working seven days a week, between filming and publicity duties. "Jody" and "Buffy" clothing lines were launched and the two child stars were expected to ensure the product flew off the shelves.
On the weekends and during Family Affair's summer hiatus, Whitaker and Jones were shuttled around the country for promotional fashion shows.
Johnny Whitaker and Anissa Jones in 1967
Credit: Ken Whitmore/TV Guide/Courtesy Everett Collection
"Being adulated by 15,000 or 20,000 people in a mall is something I basked in," recalled Whitaker. "I loved it. Anissa, not so much. She was more quiet and reserved in real life."
After the show went off the air in 1971, Whitaker continued acting with film roles in Disney's Napoleon and Samantha opposite 10-year-old Jodie Foster and Tom Sawyer, as well as three seasons on NBC's Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.
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Johnny Whitaker in 'Sigmund and the Sea Monster' on NBC
Credit: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
Jones never acted again. Although she and Whitaker lost contact, "My agent said that she had seen this girl that looked like Anissa, very dejected and sad… sitting on the curb," he revealed to Woman's World. "She looked high and was just very dejected."
Not long after, Jones was found dead from an overdose after a night of partying. She was 18.
"It was at that time that I realized that I might need to become a little bit more normal and do some more normal things," said Whitaker. He went back to high school, joined the spirit team and got into student government. "I had a great opportunity to do plays and be as normal as I could be."
Johnny Whitaker and Brian Keith
Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
Another costar whom he lost contact with in the decades after Family Affair was his TV father figure. But in 1997, when Whitaker heard Keith was very ill he got his phone number and gave him a call.
"I said, 'Brian… I wanted you to know that I'm praying for you, and I wanted you to know how much I love you and care about you and have respected you and the work that you've done and what you've taught me as an actor and as a human being,'" recalled Whitaker. "'Oh, Johnny, I'm so sorry. I'm just an old fart. The doctors give me five days to live.' 'Oh my goodness… five days?'"
Sure enough, five days later, Keith died at the age of 75 — however, he took his own life.
Johnny Whitaker in 2026
Credit: Robin L Marshall/Getty
But he was very much still with Whitaker. Days later, he was driving down the freeway in Los Angeles when he was distracted by his ringing car phone and didn't realize the traffic ahead of him had come to a halt. As he swerved to avoid a collision, his car ended up right in the path of an oncoming semi.
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"And I hear Brian’s voice say, 'Duck, cover, roll,'" he told Woman's World. "That, I believe, was an angel — Brian being himself, caring about me. So as I heard that voice, I let go of the steering wheel, I covered my head, I ducked down and moved to the side just as my car came in contact with the semi. The top of my car—and I would've lost my head—was gone."
"I looked up and I said, 'Thank you, Brian,'" said Whitaker. "After that, I went to the funeral and am forever grateful to Brian for that."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
