Anissa Jones
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| Anissa Jones | |
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| Birth name | Mary Anissa Jones |
| Born | March 11, 1958 West Lafayette, Indiana |
| Died | August 28, 1976 Oceanside, California |
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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[edit] Early years
Mary Anissa Jones was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, where her parents were students at Purdue University. They soon moved to Playa Del Rey, California.
When Anissa was only four years old, her hard-driving mother signed her up for dance classes. In 1964, when she was six, her mother took her to an open audition for a cereal commercial, which became her first television appearance.
[edit] Buffy & Acting Career
At eight, her acting skills drew the attention of television producers, and she was cast as Elizabeth 'Buffy' Patterson-Davis on CBS's sitcom Family Affair (1966). Her character was one of three 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.
Buffy had a doll named "Mrs. Beasley" that she would claim talked to her, often making humorous comments. Marketed by Mattel, it became the best-selling doll in America at that time. When the show was cancelled in 1971, the then 13-year-old Jones expressed relief that she would no longer need to carry the doll around. 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, coloring 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 seven days a week. The first three seasons consisted of up to 30 episodes each, unlike modern series, which usually shoot fewer than 25 episodes a year with more breaks in filming and less promotional appearances for the actors. When Jones broke her leg on a playground in April 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.
She would often receive presents from admirers. If there wasn't a present for her brother, Paul, she would receive it, but would later give the present away in deference to Paul.
Also in 1969, at age 11, Jones played the role of Carol Bix in her only film, The Trouble With Girls alongside Elvis Presley.
Family Affair ended in 1971 after 138 episodes over a five year run. Jones unsuccessfully auditioned for at least one other role: Regan MacNeil in the film The Exorcist; however, the part went to Linda Blair. Jones was unable (or unwilling) to find any other work in film.
Brian Keith (who kept in touch with Anissa via letters after Family Affair ended) offered her a young-adult role on his new television show The Brian Keith Show (1972-1974). Jones was told she would not have to audition if she wanted the part, but she chose to stay retired from television series work.
[edit] 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 afterward. The emotional distress the dispute caused probably contributed to 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 taking drugs. 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. She started dating Allan Kovan, who was also involved with drugs.
[edit] 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, PCP, methaqualone 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, she had no funeral and no grave marker because she had not wanted her grave to become a tourist attraction because of 'Buffy'. 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.
[edit] 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 turbulent 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.
- The spoken word poem "Ode To Buffy," written and read by Marilynn Fowler, appears on the Voice Farm 1990 CD Bigger, Cooler, Weirder.
- The 80s novelty song "Buffy Come Back" by Angel & The Reruns paid homage to Jones's Family Affair character.
[edit] 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)
