Dunagan admits he really didn’t care much for his agent and after the agent was rude to his mother, “I fired him on the spot in my house at the age of five-and-a-half.” Disney called my mother and wanted me to be the facial model for Bambi.” Once word hit the street that Disney had contacted the Dunagan family, Donnie’s agent recommended that he turn down the role claiming to have a bigger part for him.
After seeing a photo of Dunagan in a local newspaper “Mr. Living in Westwood, California, Dunagan had at least six movies to his credit. His work as a child actor in front of the camera caught the attention of Walt Disney. He recounts the general looked at him and smiled and said “Major, I guess you will do the audit won’t you Major Bambi?” It was the first time that anyone had revealed Dunagan’s secret life as an actor and as the voice of Bambi.ĭunagan later learned the secret file was the result of a background check for White House clearance that had traced his life all the way back to birth. “He reached out over on the corner of his desk and patted this secret folder,” that Dunagan confesses he never saw before. He was being enlisted by his commander to do a boot camp audit of the auditors in San Diego. “Two months before I was going to retire from the Marine Corps, he teased me and in a nice way blackmailed me into some extra duties,” Dunagan recalls. And I never said a word about them.” That is until he was in the Marine Corps and a general was handed a secret folder on Dunagan’s life.
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One movie after the other…bang, bang, bang, bang. “I made seven or eight movies before the age of six-and-a-half. “I never said a word about the movies,” Dunagan confides. I am very proud today that I was part of this enduring legend but I’ve had my life and kinda been my own person all along.” Dunagan reflects “I thought it was kinda vain to brag and that’s not how I am.” Behn similarly agrees “I have never been one to bask in the glory of what I did. Both men lived their lives for the past seven decades quietly with Bambi and Thumper as sort of a footnote to their storied careers which had little if anything to do with the entertainment business after childhood.
Up until five years ago few people really knew much about the actors who breathed life into the characters from Disney’s 1942 animated classic. Dunagan was the voice of young Bambi while Behn gave life to young Thumper in Disney’s classic Bambi celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Before you say “who?” they are best known for their on-screen animated characters in one of Walt Disney Studios most beloved movies.