Kathy Garver

Kathleen Marie "Kathy" Garver (born December 13, 1945) is an American film, television, voice-over and character actress of stage, most widely known for playing Uncle Bill Davis's (played by Brian Keith) teenaged niece, Catherine "Cissy" Davis, on the popular 1960s sitcom, Family Affair. Before that, she played a slave in The Ten Commandments. Garver authored The Family Affair Cookbook and has been a TV host (Backstage with Barry and Kathy).

Early life
Garver was born in Long Beach, California, and is the daughter of Rosemary and Hayes Gilbert Garver. She was raised Roman Catholic and she attended Catholic primary school. When she was 9, she tried her hand at acting and was cast in I'll Cry Tomorrow, but her most famous movie role was that of one of the young slaves in The Ten Commandments, and she has been acting ever since.

Between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s, the young actress worked with such actors as Marvin Miller, Chuck Connors, Peter Graves, Scott Forbes, Dan O'Herlihy, Kurt Russell, Fess Parker, Vince Edwards, Richard Chamberlain, Patty Duke, Anne Lockhart, and James Franciscus. She also worked with another Hollywood legend, Brian Keith, who would star with Garver in Family Affair.

She was later raised in San Bernardino, where she entered Pacific High School in 1960, and stayed there until graduation in 1964. Around the time, she entered UCLA, majoring in speech and drama, until her graduation in 1968, while acting.

Career
While studying, Garver auditioned and won the role of Uncle Bill's teenaged niece, Catherine "Cissy" Davis, the eldest sibling on the original TV series Family Affair, for CBS in 1966. Garver, who'd been a fan of Keith's since she was 10 years old and had guest-starred on Crusader, a television series he had starred in. That one guest-role paid off and Keith himself was impressed to see her grow up and become the amazing young lady that she was. She also enjoyed the wonderful on- and off-screen chemistry with Keith. She would continue playing that role until its cancellation in 1971.

She continued to keep in touch or visit Keith until his suicide on June 24, 1997, where she attended the funeral. Garver appeared in the Christmas episode of the later revival of Family Affair. She guest starred on numerous television series, including ABC's short-lived The Bing Crosby Show in the 1964-1965 season. Garver also provided the voice of Firestar on the Saturday morning cartoon Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. She also voiced Storm, as well as other female guest characters. In the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon series, she played the voice of Miss America. Garver's Family Affair co-star, Brian Keith, provided the voice of Uncle Ben Parker on the aforementioned Spider-Man series from the 1990s.

Garver was also the voice of Alice Mitchell in the Dennis the Menace cartoon special Mayday for Mother and Pepper in Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos. Her other voice roles included the television series Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, The Tom & Jerry Kids Show, Droopy, Master Detective, The New Yogi Bear Show, The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show and The All-New SuperFriends Hour, the cartoon special Marvin: Baby of the Year and the anime film JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

She has also been doing voices for many commercials, toys and audiobooks.

Garver has also produced, narrated and wrote lyrics and composed the music for eight audio Beatrix Potter tales and eight Mother Goose based audiotapes for Smarty Pants Inc. Her Beatrix Potter tapes have sold over two million copies and have won numerous awards. Garver has also won two Audie Awards, one for her narration of The Worlds Shortest Stories, the other in 2004 for her direction of Amy Tan in The Opposite of Fate read by the author. She has recorded books for Brilliance Audio, Dove, Listen and Live and can be downloaded at the Timber Wolf Press website. Her voice has also been heard in the films Apollo 13 (which was awarded the Academy Award for sound), Ransom, Backdraft and Jingle All the Way which were all directed by Ron Howard.

Garver was a member of Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women at UCLA. She lives in Hillsborough, California, with her husband David and son Reid. On June 26, 2008, she attended the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony when Brian Keith was awarded a star posthumously; Garver gave a speech on his behalf.