Donald Roan Dunagan (born August 16, 1934) is an American former child actor and retired United States Marine Corpsmajor. He is best known for portraying the young son of Baron Frankenstein in Son of Frankenstein and for providing the voice of young Bambi in Bambi (1942). As of 2024, he, Peter Behn (the voice of young Thumper) and Stan Alexander (the voice of young Flower) are the last three surviving cast members of the film.[citation needed]
Biography
Dunagan was born in San Antonio, Texas, United States, but his family soon moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where they struggled with poverty.[1] There, when he was at the age of three-and-a-half, he won a talent contest prize of $100. Spotted by a studio talent scout, the family moved to Hollywood, where Dunagan appeared in a series of films[2] and soon became his family's main breadwinner. After he provided the voice for the titular character in Walt Disney's Bambi (1942), he retired from voice acting.[3]
For Dunagan's service he received a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.[6] Dunagan kept his acting career a secret while serving in the Marines, but was eventually found out shortly before his retirement.[7] In 2004, he was located and exhaustively interviewed by horror film historian Tom Weaver in a special "Donnie Dunagan issue" of Video Watchdog magazine.
Dunagan is retired and (as of 2018) resides in San Angelo, Texas, with his wife, Dana.[8]
