Donnie Dunagan

San Angelo, TX USA: Retired Maj, USMC, but Dunagan has kept up a hectic schedule by doing interviews on the ABC morning show "The View," in addition to the British Broadcasting Corp. in London, Disney Studios, NBC-TV in Chicago and CBS-TV in Houston, among others due to the recent Blu-Ray release of Bambi. [March 2011]

Interviewed in "Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers" by Tom Weaver (McFarland, 2005).

Concealed the fact that he was the voice of Bambi in Bambi (1942) while he was in the U.S. Marines. He feared being nicknamed "Bambi".

Was dropped on his stomach by Boris Karloff and onto the concrete floor while filming Son of Frankenstein (1939), so that he had to be wired to him.

Born in Depression-era Texas, Donnie Dunagan moved with his parents to Memphis as a young child. There, as a three-year-old, he was taught to tap dance by a neighbor and entered in a talent contest at the Orpheum Theatre. Donnie won the $100 prize and caught the attention of a movie talent scout in the audience, who arranged for the family to come by train to Hollywood. The blonde moppet made his film debut in "Mother Carey's Chickens" (1938), played the son of the "Son of Frankenstein" (1939) and provided the voice of young Bambi for the 1942 animated classic.