Anissa Jones facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Anissa Jones
Jones in 1970
Born	Mary Anissa Jones (1958-03-11)March 11, 1958 Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.
Died	August 28, 1976(1976-08-28) (aged 18) Oceanside, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, student
Years active	1966–1971

Mary Anissa Jones /əˈniːsə/ (March 11, 1958 – August 28, 1976) was an American child actress known for her role as Buffy Davis on the CBS sitcom Family Affair, which ran from 1966 to 1971. She died when she was 18.

Early life

Jones was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 1958 and was raised in Charleston, West Virginia, until the age of 5. Her maternal grandparents were Lebanese and Jones' middle name is used by Lebanese Maronites instead of Agnes, because it derives from Persian Anahid, Anahit or Anaïs, meaning immaculate. Her parents were divorced prior to the start of her acting career in 1965.

At the time of her birth, Jones' father, John Paul Jones, was an engineering graduate and faculty board member at Purdue University, where her mother, Mary Paula Jones (née Tweel), was a zoology student. Soon after the birth of Anissa's brother John Paul Jones Jr. (called "Paul" by the family), the family moved to Playa Del Rey, California, where John Paul Sr. took a job in aerospace engineering and Anissa attended Paseo del Rey Elementary School, then Orville Wright Junior High School.

Career

In 1964, when she was 6, Jones' first TV appearance was in a commercial. Two years later, 8-year-old Jones, who was small for her age, was cast as 6-year-old Ava Elizabeth "Buffy" Patterson-Davis on the CBS sitcom Family Affair (1966). In the sitcom, Buffy, her twin brother Jody (Johnny Whitaker), and older sister Cissy (Kathy Garver) are sent to live with their Uncle Bill (Brian Keith) and his valet Mr. French (Sebastian Cabot) a year after the children's parents die in a car accident (the DVD collection notes mistakenly state "plane accident"). In 1969, at the height of her juvenile pop cultural celebrity and of Family Affair's television ratings success, Jones made her only film appearance with a small role in The Trouble with Girls which starred Elvis Presley. Jones was 12 when the series ended in 1971.

Family

Anissa's father, John Paul Jones, died on March 7, 1974. According to his death certificate, he died of cardiovascular disease. On March 15, 1984, Jones' brother, Paul, died. He was 24. Jones's mother, Mary Paula Jones, died in Detroit, Michigan, of natural causes on January 14, 2012.

Filmography