Donnie Dunagan

“I think I could have been appointed as the aide-de camp in the White House, it wouldn't make any difference — it's Bambi that's so dear to people. But I love it now — when people realize, 'This old jerk, he's still alive and was Bambi.' And I wouldn't take anything for it, not a darn thing for it.”

“I go in his office and he says, "Dunagan! I want you to audit the auditors." "General, when do you think I'm going to have time to do that? He looked at me, pulled his glasses down like some kind of college professor. There's a big, red, top-secret folder that he got out of some safe somewhere that had my name on it. He pats this folder, looks me in the eye and says, 'You will audit the auditors. Won't you, Maj. Bambi?”

“I was not a great match to be the little boy of the very British Basil Rathbone's character, I'm born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and I had this southern accent. We were on these huge wide-open castle sets and they kept telling me how the microphones were 'way up there' and how I had to talk extra loud.”

“Boris Karloff was one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet and he was always laughing and smiling. Mr. Karloff gave me this wooden box and inside was a metal water gun made in Germany and wow, did it work great, I wasn't allowed to have it right away, but when I was given it a couple years later, I got in trouble for squirting people with it while on the Disney Studio lot. The studio security took it away from me one day and 70 years later, I'm still waiting to get it back.”

“Wonderful. Not many would understand this, if they had a clue of even half of my teen and long adult life. The reality is, at age 77, it is pure joy that both children and 80 year-olds can enjoy the film together. I could be working in the White House and children could care less. But let someone say, “that dude over there was the face, or voice of Bambi,” and I am an immediate adopted grandfather to them. That is just an unmatchable joy, and a real responsibility.”

“I'm a sensitive man. When I had my first casualties as a lieutenant, I had a hard time controlling my emotions, but I had a strong sergeant with me who kept me from doing something stupid. I've been around some real tough guys, and I promise you on my honor: The strongest guys I've known in life would pick up a wounded baby kitty on the side of the road. Yet you wouldn't want to go against them in combat. That is not inconsistent. It is part of the same ethos.”