Beloved ‘60s Child Star Johnny Whitaker Makes Rare Remarks About TV Sister Anissa Jones' Tragic Death

Johnny Whitaker was one of the most beloved child actors of the 1960s and ‘70s, starring in the Saturday morning favorite Sigmund and the Sea Monsters and appearing in everything from Bonanza to Bewitched. 

In 1966, the young actor played Jody Davis, the twin brother of Buffy (Anissa Jones) in the classic sitcom Family Affair. The series, about three orphaned children (Whitaker, Jones, and Kathy Garver) who go to live with their bachelor uncle Bill (Brian Keith) in his New York high-rise, was a fan favorite, airing until 1971 on CBS.

But just five years after the series ended, Whitaker’s onscreen sister, Jones, died of a drug overdose. She was 18 years old.

Whitaker, 65, recently reflected on working with Jones while speaking at the MidSouth Nostalgia Festival. “Anissa liked to act, but she was more like Brian. She didn’t like doing the publicity,” Whitaker recalled, per Remind magazine. “They had a Buffy and a Jody line of clothing and on our hiatuses, we would go around the country doing fashion shows. She did not really like the adulation.”

While Whitaker’s career as a child actor continued to thrive following Family Affair, Jones had a difficult transition. She had no further acting credits after Family Affair, per IMDb. When Jones died, Whitaker also took a break from acting.

“Anissa’s death really shook me up,” he said at the fan event. “I was a good Mormon boy and decided to get out of show business. I went on a mission to Portugal. When I came home, I tried to get back in the business; but the business doesn’t like when you leave it. It doesn’t mind leaving you, but if you leave it, you don’t recover easily.”

In 2024, Whitaker told Fox News Digital he tried to contact Jones shortly before her death, but was unsuccessful. "My agent claims that she was kind of out of it when she last saw her, possibly high or very depressed," Whitaker alleged to the outlet. "I remember my agent said, ‘You need to contact her. She looks really bad.’"

"I did my best, but I was a young teen and getting ready for a new family variety show," he recalled. "I did try to contact her. Even after her passing, I tried to contact her family. And then her brother died a few years later from an overdose."

"She was my sister," Whitaker said of his late co-star, adding that it was “difficult to lose her so young."

Whitaker also admitted to his own past struggles with substance abuse. For the past two decades, he has been a drug and alcohol counselor at a county jail where he helps inmates get their lives back on track.

Related: '70s Sitcom Star Makes Heartbreaking Revelation About His Family