Donnie Dunagan, original voice of Disney’s Bambi and triple Purple Heart marine, dies aged 92

Dunagan was six when he voiced the young deer in the classic cartoon, with an assistant director instructing him to pretend his own mother had died

Donnie Dunagan, who voiced Bambi in the Walt Disney classic, as well as playing the son of Frankenstein opposite Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff, has died aged 92.

Dunagan was six when he was chosen to provide the voice of the young deer in the animation’s most heartbreaking chapter. He recalled the experience in the recording booth as easy and relaxed, with rudimentary technology and notes from an assistant director instructing him to pretend his own mother had died when voicing Bambi’s reaction to his mother being killed by a hunter.