This is a tribute page to Anissa Jones.Mary Anissa Jones was a child actress, born in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is best remembered as 'Buffy' on Family Affair. She died of a massive drug overdose at the age of 18.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.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 shopliftingand 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.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, 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.
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