Johnny Whitaker

Johnny Whitaker was a child actor, appearing in television’s “Family Affair” that played from 1966 to 1971. The show was rated in the top 10 when CBS stopped production. He played the title roles in the 1973 musical version of “Tom Sawyer” and in “The Littlest Angel,” a 1969 Hallmark Hall of Fame production. He also had appearances in “General Hospital,” “Bonanza,” “Green Acres,” “Bewitched,” “Gunsmoke,” and “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.” At the age of three, he started doing television commercials. He met Brian Keith at the age of five when he appeared in the 1966 movie, “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming,” and Keith recommended Whitaker to the producers of “Family Affair.”

Whitaker was born in 1959 in Van Nuys, California, and says he had a “wonderful childhood” but laments that his “adult life wasn’t as wonderful as my childhood was.”[1] He struggled with a drug addiction for ten years, was married for a few years before his wife divorced him, lost his girlfriend to suicide, and was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

After his family stepped in and “staged an intervention”[2], he was able to begin a journey to sobriety. But the journey didn't start immediately. "It was extremely embarrassing, and I was very upset. I signed this contract my brother gave me, but I didn’t stop. When you’re an addict, you don’t like to admit there’s a problem. You're not just going to suddenly stop. But I believe that every addict and alcoholic knows that they have a problem." On Sept. 25, 1997, he decided to finally get help, and after five years of living clean, he started a nonprofit to help non-English speakers find treatment and recovery. For over twenty years he has conducted 12-step meetings at a county jail.

He was also re-baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ. “I realize that there’s not too much that anybody can do that’s too bad that you can’t be forgiven,” Whitaker said.[3] He had served as a full-time missionary in Portugal from 1979 to 1981.

Whitaker was an invited guest at the 2023 FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention. He has appeared at San Diego’s Comic Con several times.

Whitaker is writing his memoirs.