Dunagan was born in
San Antonio, Texas, but his family soon moved to
Memphis, Tennessee, where they struggled with poverty. 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 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. By the age of 13, Dunagan lived in a
boarding house and worked as a
lathe operator. In 1952, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the
Marine Corps. and served three tours in
Vietnam, where he was wounded several times, before finally retiring with the rank of
major in 1977. Dunagan kept his acting career a secret while serving in the Marines, but was eventually found out shortly before his retirement. 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. ==Filmography==