15:41Classic TV · 1969Family Affair Cast Then and Now
Episode: Family Affair (1966): Cast Then & Now — 60 Years Later… Three of Them Never Made It Out
From Hollywood Legends Era · 17 min ·
About the Family Affair Cast Then and Now
The Family Affair cast then and now is a story of a TV household that looked warm and safe, and of real lives that were often much harder. The CBS sitcom premiered on September 12, 1966, and ran for five seasons and 138 episodes, ending on March 4, 1971.
Brian Keith played Bill Davis, a bachelor engineer living in a large apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side, who takes in his late brother's three orphaned children. His proper English valet, Mr. French, has to adjust too. Producer Don Fedderson co-created the show with Edmund Hartmann.
Sixty years after the premiere, three of the people remembered in this episode are still with us. Here is what became of each of them, checked against reliable records.
Who Was in the Davis Household?
Brian Keith as Uncle Bill Davis
Brian Keith was 44 when Family Affair began. During World War II he served in the Marine Corps from 1942 to 1945 as a radioman and rear gunner in a two-man dive bomber, and he received the Air Medal.
As Uncle Bill, he earned three Emmy nominations, and he also held part ownership of the show. When he was cast, he recommended a young actor he had worked with for the role of Jody, which is how Johnny Whitaker joined the family.
His last years were hard. He had emphysema and lung cancer despite quitting smoking a decade earlier, and he reportedly faced money troubles. In April 1997 his daughter Daisy died by suicide. Ten weeks later, on June 24, 1997, Brian Keith died at his home in Malibu, at age 75; his death was ruled a suicide. His ashes rest next to Daisy's at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
Sebastian Cabot as Mr. Giles French
Sebastian Cabot was born in London in 1918. He left school at 14 to work in a garage, where he became a chauffeur and valet for the actor Frank Pettingell, and later his dressing-room butler.
That early experience fit the role that made him famous. He also gave Disney some of its most familiar voices: Bagheera the panther in The Jungle Book (1967) and the narrator of the Winnie the Pooh films, ending with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1977.
In 1967 he fell ill, and Mr. French was said to be away traveling with the Queen while his brother filled in. Cabot returned and stayed with the show. On August 23, 1977, he died at age 59 after suffering a stroke at his vacation home in Deep Cove, British Columbia.
Anissa Jones as Buffy Davis
Anissa Jones was born in March 1958 and was cast at eight to play six-year-old Buffy. With her pigtails and her talking doll Mrs. Beasley, which Mattel sold as a toy, she became one of the best-known children on television.
Her parents had divorced before her career began, and life after the show was difficult. On August 28, 1976, she died in Oceanside, California, at just 18. The coroner ruled her death an accidental drug overdose. Six days later, a doctor was arrested and charged with illegally prescribing sedatives to her.
Her brother Paul died of a drug overdose in 1984, at age 24.
Johnny Whitaker as Jody Davis
Johnny Whitaker was born in December 1959, so he was about six when he became Jody, Buffy's twin. The producers had planned to make the two characters different ages, but the children seemed so sweet together that they became twins.
As an adult, he struggled with drugs and alcohol until his family held an intervention. He joined a twelve-step program and said in 2011 that he had been sober for 13 years.
He later became a certified drug counselor and founded a nonprofit that helps Spanish-speaking people with addiction. Johnny Whitaker is 66.
Kathy Garver as Cissy Davis
Kathy Garver started young. Cecil B. DeMille noticed her as an extra on The Ten Commandments (1956) and gave her a small part as a slave girl named Rachel.
She was cast as Cissy, the oldest Davis child, at the last minute during pilot filming, after the original actress gained weight on a trip to Europe. Garver was 20 at the time, playing a teenager. During the show she began dating Gregg Fedderson, who played Cissy's boyfriend. Her 2015 memoir is called Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood.
In 2008 she spoke on Brian Keith's behalf when he received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her husband of more than four decades, David Travis, died of cancer on August 30, 2025. That November, she earned her first Grammy nomination, for narrating an audiobook. She attended the ceremony in February 2026. Kathy Garver is 80.
Who Else Joined the Family Over the Years?
Gregg Fedderson as Gregg Bartlett
Gregg Fedderson was a son of producer Don Fedderson. From season two onward he played Gregg Bartlett, Cissy's boyfriend, and off screen he and Kathy Garver dated.
He did not pursue a long acting career after the show ended. Gregg Fedderson died of cancer in Huntington Beach, California, on April 28, 2002, at age 53.
John Williams as Niles French
When Sebastian Cabot fell ill in 1967, John Williams stepped in for nine episodes as Mr. French's brother, Niles. Many viewers may not have realized how distinguished he was.
Born in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1903, he had been on stage since 1916. He won the 1953 Tony Award as Chief Inspector Hubbard in Dial M for Murder, then played the same role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film. He also appeared in Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief and Billy Wilder's Sabrina and Witness for the Prosecution.
Later, he became the face of a famous Columbia House ad for the record set 120 Music Masterpieces, which ran from 1971 to 1984. John Williams died on May 5, 1983, in La Jolla, California, at age 80.
Nancy Walker as Emily Turner
Nancy Walker was born Anna Myrtle Swoyer in Philadelphia in 1922 and first appeared in vaudeville with her parents as a baby. She made her Broadway debut in 1941 in Best Foot Forward.
In the final season, she played Emily Turner, a part-time housekeeper, in six episodes. Around the same time, she first appeared as Ida Morgenstern, Rhoda's mother, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Her roles as Ida and as Mildred on McMillan & Wife brought her a string of Emmy nominations.
Nancy Walker died of lung cancer on March 25, 1992, in Studio City, California, at age 69.
Sherry Alberoni as Sharon James
Sherry Alberoni joined The Mickey Mouse Club at nine. At her audition she played the trumpet while tap dancing, though the show's history credits her lisp with winning her the spot.
She appeared in nine episodes of Family Affair as Sharon James, Cissy's friend. She then became a busy voice actress, playing Alexandra Cabot in Josie and the Pussycats, Wendy in Super Friends, and Laurie in The Partridge Family 2200 A.D.
She has been married to Dr. Richard Van Meter since 1971, and they have two daughters and four grandchildren. Sherry Alberoni is 79.
Why Family Affair Still Touches Viewers
Family Affair was about grown-ups learning to care for children who had lost everything. For many viewers, Uncle Bill and Mr. French showed that a family could be built from love and patience.
The real stories behind the cast are a reminder that the people we welcomed into our living rooms had their own struggles. Some found peace and purpose, like Johnny Whitaker helping others recover. Others are remembered with sadness, and with gratitude for the joy they gave.
Which member of the Davis household do you remember most, and did you ever have a Mrs. Beasley doll of your own?
Sources and Further Reading
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