Donnie Dunagan, Original Voice of Bambi, Dies at 92

Donnie Dunagan, the child actor who voiced Bambi in Disney’s 1942 animated film, has died at 92. His agents confirmed his death, while film historian Tom Weaver reported that he died of lung cancer on November 4. The precise date and cause were attributed to Weaver in reports; the agents’ confirmation did not specify either detail.

Dunagan’s representatives, Kris Jones and Nery Lemus, said he wanted people to be happy for the life he had lived rather than sad about his death. In a joint statement, they described him as a Marine remembered by fans for Bambi and Son of Frankenstein, and said he encouraged others and supported fellow veterans.

Dunagan began acting as a young child and appeared as Peter von Frankenstein, the son of Baron Frankenstein, in the 1939 film Son of Frankenstein. He also appeared in Tower of London, The Forgotten Woman, Vigil in the Night and Meet the Chump. Bambi, released in 1942, was his final film.

He was about six or seven when he recorded the young deer’s voice. In the film’s account of Bambi’s mother being killed by a hunter, Dunagan recalled that a studio coach asked him to imagine his own mother lost and in danger to bring the scene’s emotion into...