In 1957, at the age of 7, his mother took him to an open casting call for a new family television series titled Leave It to Beaver.

Fafara earned the part of Hubert "Whitey" Whitney, one of the Beaver Cleaver's best friends.

[1] At his parents' instigation, Fafara went to live with his sister in Jamaica, where he tried his hand at painting; however, he continued to drink and use narcotics.

[1] Fafara spent the final eight years of his life clean and sober, initially living in a house for recovering addicts and alcoholics, then in a subsidized apartment in downtown Portland, Oregon.

Due to his addiction to heroin, he contracted hepatitis C.[1] Fafara died on September 20, 2003, his 54th birthday, in Portland, Oregon, of complications from hernia surgery he had undergone the previous month.