When we conducted our recent phone interview, Kathy Garver was baking a lemon meringue pie. As the author of the just-published Family Affair Cookbook, the actress certainly knows her way around a kitchen.
Garver is best-known for her five-year run as Cissy on the 1960s CBS sitcom Family Affair, though she's had a lengthy career since. For many years, she's been an in-demand voice actress for television animation, and continues to play small roles in feature films. She had a nice role in The Princess Diaries (2002) and was more recently seen as a spa manager in the Bay Area-produced Race You to the Bottom (2005), one of only a handful of films to deal frankly with bisexuality. Her involvement with the project came about simply: "I submitted my picture, and got a call four days before shooting."
The actress has several other films "in the can" awaiting release, but it's Family Affair's Cissy that remains her signature role. She describes the series as being more of a "dramady" (a comedy with serious overtones) than a traditional sitcom. She recalled her close friendship with the late Annisa Jones, who played her onscreen sister, Buffy.
"We were like sisters as well as professionals," Garver said. "We did sleepovers, and made presents for the cast and crew." But her recollections of what followed were tinged with sadness. "I went to her 18th birthday party, and her Mom asked me if I could spend more time with her - she thought she had fallen in with a bad crowd. I had to leave the next day to do My Fair Lady, but I promised I would, as soon as I got back. But Annisa OD'd and died before that could happen.
"I don't blame myself. I didn't know how bad the problem was."
Fondest memory
One of Garver’s fondest Family Affair memories involved a trip to Israel. "Family Affair was then the most popular show in that country, and a live musical presentation of the show was mounted. It was cast with impersonators, except for me. I performed my role phonetically in Hebrew - people were stunned when I stepped out onto the stage!"
Ten years prior to her TV stardom, Garver, around age 10, experienced true show business magic when she was cast in Cecil B. DeMille’s swan song, The Ten Commandments (1956). Originally hired as an extra, she was hand-picked by the legendary director for a short scene with star Charlton Heston. "DeMille liked to humanize the epics, so people could relate," Garver recalls. Her scene is easy to spot: right before the Exodus, a little girl is seen asking, "Where’s my doll?" Heston asks her, "Are you afraid?"
The actress also has fond memories of working with Charles Laughton, Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish in the classic chiller The Night of the Hunter (1955). It was Laughton’s only film as director: the openly gay actor was so hurt by the film’s bad reviews that he refused to direct another.
Garver fondly recalled Gish as "warm and outgiving. She provided craft services for the crew on her own dime! Mitchum, in the film, was dark and scary! He drank a lot!"
These days, Garver calls the Bay Area home, and she’s quite happy here. "When I’m home, I like being home. It’s a nice atmosphere to be in. I love cooking and gardening." But show business remains in her blood. She never wanted to be a star, preferring to be a working actress. She’s done a series of interviews and commentaries for the Family Affair DVD box set, and is immensely proud of Backstage with Barry and Kathy, a weekly show she co-hosts with pal Barry Barsamian. The upbeat chat-fest features interviews with local performers as well as visiting luminaries, such as current Wicked star Patty Duke. The show has proved to be one of Access SF’s most popular offerings, and Garver says that she’s approached KOFY-TV about bringing Backstage to the entire Bay Area.
Now of a "certain age," Kathy Garver can look back with pride on a career and a life well-lived. Cleary, she still has much more to offer us.
Family Affair: The Complete Series on DVD (MPI Home Video); The Family Affair Cookbook by Kathy Garver with Geoffrey Mark (Bear Manor Media)
And if you’re in San Francisco you can catch Kathy Garver on Backstage with Barry and Kathy, Mondays, 5 p.m. on Comcast Channel 29 in SF; www.KathyGarver.com (stop by and say hi, she says!)