He was the original voice of Bambi and yet kept this secret for decades to preserve his image: a look back at the journey of Donnie Dunagan, war hero and Disney hero!
He is not the only child “star” to have tried his hand at cinema before moving away from the sets and retraining. But for Donnie Dunagan, hiding his past was a priority in his new profession.
Born in 1934, in San Antonio, Texas, Donald “Donnie” Roan Dunagan and his family quickly move to Memphis, Tennessee, where they will have to fight poverty. But when he was only three and a half years old, little Donnie won a $100 prize in a talent contest. He was then spotted by an agent and moved with his family to Hollywood, where he began appearing in films and quickly became the main financial support in his household.
He first started in the feature films of Rowland V. Lee, Happiness in rental (1938), Frankenstein’s Son (1939), in which he played the young son of Baron Frankenstein, and The Tower of London (1939). He thus continues the roles, also appearing in The Forgotten Woman by Harold Young the same year, in Vigil in the Night by George Stevens the following year or even Meet the Chump by Edward F. Cline, in 1941.
And it was finally in 1942, at the age of 7, that he ended up lending his voice to young Bambi in the Disney classic of the same name. After this experience, however, he retired from the world of cinema.
Far from the glitter of Hollywood
At the age of 13, we find Donnie Dunagan far from movie sets and glitter, living in a boarding house and working in the industrial field as a film maker. In 1952, at age 18, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and became the youngest drill instructor in U.S. Navy history.
He would eventually serve three tours of duty in Vietnam, where he was wounded several times, before finally retiring with the rank of major in 1977. For his service, he received a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.
Keep your secret at all costs
Throughout his military career, he managed to keep secret that he had been the voice of Bambi. As reported by Storycorps (via Gala) in 2015, for Donnie Dunagankeeping this secret was important, his military background being incompatible with the image of the little fawn who cried for his mother and who traumatized an entire generation of children.
“In people’s minds, the image of Bambi is that of a frail little deer, not very brave, which slides belly down on the ice“, did he declare. For him, being associated with the character would discredit him in relation to his profession. “I never said a word about Bambi to anyone” – and not even to his wife.
However, one day, one of his superiors ended up discovering his past, and he was right: the blackmail arrived, the latter imposing painful tasks on him to keep his secret, also threatening to call him “Major Bambi”. But more than 70 years later, at the time, his feeling on the subject has changed: “Today I really like it.”
In 2004, Donnie Dunagan was officially tracked down and interviewed extensively by film historian Tom Weaver in a “special Donnie Dunagan issue” for Video Watchdog magazine.
Disney
Since 2024, the 89-year-old retired major, as well as his colleagues Peter Behn (who lent his voice to the young rabbit Thumper) and Stan Alexander (who lent his to the young Fleur, the male skunk in the film) have been the last three actors still alive from the cult Walt Disney film.
While waiting for the live-action Bambistill in preparation, the 1942 cartoon can be seen again on Disney+ – in its original version with the voice of Donnie Dunagan, or in French, as you wish!