Anissa Jones

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Image:Anissajones.jpg
Anissa Jones as Buffy on Family Affair

Mary Anissa Jones (March 11, 1958 – August 28, 1976) was an American child actress, born in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is best remembered as 'Buffy' on CBS's Family Affair. She died of a drug overdose at the age of 18.

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Early years

Mary Anissa Jones was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, her parents were students at Purdue University, but they soon moved to Playa Del Rey, California.

At only 4 years old, her hard-driving mother signed her up for dance classes. In 1964, aged 6, her mother took her to an open audition for a cereal commercial which became her first television appearance.

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Buffy & Acting Career

At 8 years of age her acting skills drew the attention of television producers and she shot to television stardom when she was cast as the character of Elizabeth 'Buffy' Patterson-Davis on CBS's sitcom Family Affair (1966). Her character was one of 3 siblings sent to live with her Uncle Bill (Brian Keith) and his butler, Mr. French (Sebastian Cabot) when their parents were killed in a car accident. Jones quickly became one of the most recognizable child actors in Hollywood. Her looks and presentation allowed her to be convincing as her six-year old character.

Her character Buffy had a doll named "Mrs. Beasley" that she would claim talked to her, often commenting on the context of the scene in a humorous way. Mattel marketed the doll during the series and it became the best-selling doll in America at that time. When the show was finally cancelled in 1971, the then 13-year-old Anissa expressed relief that she would no longer need to carry the doll around.

Jones and her co-star Johnny Whitaker (who played her twin brother Jody) once visited with U.S. President Lyndon Johnson. In 1967, she was one of the youngest presenters ever at the Emmy awards. In addition to the Mrs. Beasley doll, she was part of several other lucrative Family Affair marketing campaigns including Buffy paper dolls, lunch boxes, a clothing line, colouring books and a 1971 cookbook featuring her on the cover.

While the show ran, being Buffy was a gruelling, full-time, year-round job for Jones. She was often either shooting or promoting the show 7 days a week. The first 3 seasons consisted of up to 30 episodes each, unlike modern series which usually shoot fewer than 25 episodes a year. When Jones broke her leg on a playground in April of 1969, the producers had the injury written into the show because they considered her role too important to allow her to be sidelined to heal.

Also in 1969, at age 11, Jones played the role of Carol Bix in her only film, The Trouble With Girls alongside Elvis Presley.

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Typecast

The Family Affair ended in 1971 after 138 episodes over a 5 year run. Jones unsuccessfully auditioned for at least one other role: the main role in the film The Exorcist, however the part went to Linda Blair. Jones was unable to find any other work in film.

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Private Life After Show Business

Jones' acting career had, to a large degree, kept her away from regular schools. After recognizing that she had been typecast, Jones returned to public school and a life outside of the entertainment industry. Anissa Jones attended Paseo Del Rey Grammar School, Orville Wright Middle School and Westchester High School.

Anissa's parents had gone through a bitter divorce in 1965, and continued to feud over custody of the children for some time afterwards. This caused a lot of emotional distress, probably leading to many of Jones' later problems. In 1973, custody of Anissa and her year-younger brother Paul was awarded to their father, but he died shortly thereafter of heart disease. When her brother moved back in with her mother, Anissa moved in with a friend and began skipping school. Anissa's mother reported her as a runaway, and she was sent to juvenile hall for several months. After her release and return home, Anissa began shoplifting and doing drugs with her friends at the beach. She flunked out of high school, and briefly worked at a doughnut shop in 1975.

When she turned 18, Jones gained control of approximately $180,000 in the form of a trust fund and U.S. Savings Bonds that had been created with part of her earnings from Family Affair. Jones and her brother Paul then rented an apartment together, and Anissa purchased herself a Ford Pinto and a Chevrolet Camaro for her brother.

She started dating Allan Kovan, who was also involved with drugs. Her drug use intensified, and she was often taking combinations of angel dust, cocaine, liquor, any pills she could find, and marijuana.

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Death

On August 28, 1976, after partying all night at the beach town of Oceanside, California, Anissa Jones was found in the bedroom of a friend's house, where she had died in her sleep. The coroner's report listed her death as accidental drug overdose. Found in her system were cocaine, angel dust, Quaaludes and Seconal. The coroner who examined Jones reported that she had died from one of the most severe drug overdoses he had ever seen.

Although she had $63,000 in cash and over $100,000 in savings bonds when she died, there was no funeral and no grave marker was made. Her body was cremated and her ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean on September 1, 1976.

In 1984, her brother Paul Jones also died of a drug overdose.

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Trivia

  • Anissa is pronounced "Ah-NEES-ah" (rhyming with Lisa not Melissa) and in Arabic means "little friend" (Jones' maternal grandparents were Lebanese).
  • The Canadian pop-punk band The Diodes sang about Jones's turbulant life and overdose in the song "Child Star."
  • The line "Buffy's Dead" in the song Rerun Heaven (1980) by Nixon's Revenge refers to her
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Quotes

  • "I can read...except for a very big word we sometimes have. Like the word philosopher. Do you know what a philosopher is? Well...it's a man that thinks a lot, but doesn't do anything much about it." (TV Radio Mirror, March 1967)
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External links

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