“Family Affair”’s Kathy Garver recalls profound moment Cecil B. DeMille discovered, cast her in “Ten Commandments ”(exclusive)

Joey NolfiWed, August 12, 2026 at 4:21 PM UTC

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Kathy Garver in 2026; Kathy Garver in ‘The Ten Commandments’; Charlton Heston in ‘The Ten Commandments’Credit: Mark Gunter/Getty; Paramount Pictures; Screen Archives/GettyKey Points -

Family Affair sitcom star Kathy Garver tells Entertainment Weekly about her first major role in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 classic, The Ten Commandments.

Garver tells EW she was initially cast as a background extra, but DeMille spotted her during rehearsal and shouted out from high above the set in a crane.

“Is that God?” Garver recalls of her initial thought, before DeMille “wrote scenes” for her to share with Charlton Heston that took six weeks to shoot.

Family Affair sitcom star Kathy Garver had a profound experience as a child star on the set of the 1956 classic The Ten Commandments — and exclusively tells Entertainment Weekly that she thought she heard the voice of God on the set of the Cecil B. DeMille-directed epic.

The 80-year-old Hollywood veteran recalls initially being cast as a background extra in DeMille’s Oscar-winning masterpiece, but says that a key moment during a rehearsal changed the course of her career as a budding child star.

“I was hired just as an extra, and it was my second movie. My first movie was Night of the Hunter. I got an agent after that, and she sent me over to Paramount. The body makeup, I remember that so vividly, the scratchy costumes we wore… I was doing my scene, and I was to be on a wagon holding a little lamb as a part of the exodus,” Garver remembers of the film, which she made when she was only 10 years old.

She says that, while rehearsing, “All of a sudden, I heard this big voice that said, ‘Don’t let that little girl’s face get in the camera!’”

Cecil B. DeMilleCredit: Gaby/Getty

Garver remembers feeling confused in the moment. “I said, ‘Who is that? Is that God?’ I looked up, and there was this great big crane with somebody sitting inside it. Somebody else came up to me and rearranged my blankets. After the scene was over, the man on the crane came down, and it was Cecil B. DeMille!”

The actress “had a nice little talk” with the legendary filmmaker, and notes that she told him the film was “so much fun” to make, and that she particularly enjoyed working with all of the animals that were on set with her.

“He said thanks, and then the assistant director told my mom, ‘Well, I think your daughter is about to be part of this movie for a lot longer.’ I was on it for six weeks. Cecil B. DeMille wrote scenes into the movie for me, and one was with Charlton Heston,” Garver says. “He knew what he wanted, and he told it very clearly, lucidly. It was a delight for me to work with him.”

She says she “was loving every minute of it” during the six-week stint, and that she “could sense that [DeMille] was a man who knows what he’s doing, and that I could trust him.”

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Garver appears in the film as a child roaming the city streets, which marked her first significant project in a major Hollywood movie. She would go on to front the cast of 1966’s Family Affair, a beloved sitcom that ran until 1971 on CBS.

The star played the role of Cissy on the sitcom, the eldest sibling of a trio of children whose parents die in a car accident, leading them to move in with their uncle in New York City.

Garver tells EW that she maintains friendly contact with fellow star Johnny Whitaker, who played her younger brother, a twin named Jody (alongside fellow actress Anissa Jones, who died from a drug overdose in 1976 at age 18).

‘Family Affair’ cast, including Johnny Whitaker, Sebastian Cabot, Brian Keith, Anissa Jones, and Kathy GarverCredit: Courtesy Everett Collection

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“His career went in a totally different direction, so I think he helps people off drugs now,” Garver explains, commending Whitaker for getting past his self-admitted use of drugs in the past. “I see him, I say hi” at various events, Garver says, and explains that she enjoys maintaining a cordial connection with him 60 years later.

In recent years, Garver has transitioned her career into other avenues as well. The actress regularly appears in commercials for the ClearCaptions telephone service, and is now an author who recently released the book Romancing With the Stars.

Shealsotells EW she’ll soon celebrate six decades of Family Affair at sea on a celebrity cruise honoring the show’s anniversary.

on Entertainment Weekly

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