STANLEY FAFARA
Stanley Fafara was born September 20, 1949 and grew up around Studio City, California. His mother wanted him to be an actor and so he landed work in commercials, "Rin Tin Tin", "Wanted: Dead Or Alive", and the role of Whitey Whitney in "Leave It To Beaver". When Beaver left his teacher's classroom with a note to bring home to Ward and June, Whitey had the first line spoken in the show, "What did she do to you, Beaver?". "Leave It To Beaver" aired originally from 1957-1963 on CBS and ABC.
But Whitey Whitney's life during "Leave It To Beaver" and Stanley Fafara's life after that show, were entirely different.
During his teenage years, he was drinking and doing drugs. By the age of 22, he started dealing drugs.
In the 1980s, Stanley was breaking into pharmacies and was sentenced to a year in jail for burglary. When he got out, he resumed drug dealing to support his habit and worked some jobs.
In the 1990s, he moved to Portland and wanted to leave the drug world. But he descended into being a junkie. After life in a rented motel room and then the streets, he put himself into a detox center in 1995.
He became clean and sober, moving into a halfway house for recovering addicts and alcoholics. Later, living near Skid Row, Social Security checks helped him barely get by until he went into the hospital.
Wanting to get back into show business, Fafara took some acting classes near the end but it didn't work out.
Stanley Fafara had surgery to repair a constricted intestine caused by a hernia. In a Portland, Oregon hospital, he died of complications from that surgery on September 20, 2003. His body was weakened from intravenous drug use which resulted in a hepatitis C infection. He went into a coma and later was removed from life support.
One of the most memorable of Whitey's appearances on "Leave It to Beaver" was in the episode "In The Soup" (aired May 6, 1961). Beaver and Whitey see a Zesto Soups billboard and there is steam coming out of the soup cup in the lady's hand. Whitey says the soup is real and Beaver says it's not.
On Whitey's suggestion, Beaver climbs to the top of the billboard to see what's actually in the cup.
Stanley Fafara page on www.findagrave.com
Stanley Fafara - Whitey from Leave It To Beaver - page last updated 10/2/09
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