Cammie King

Eleanore Cammack "Cammie" King (August 5, 1934 – September 1, 2010) was an American child actress and public relations officer. She is best known for her portrayal of Bonnie Blue Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939). She also provided the voice for the doe Faline as a fawn in the animated Disney film, Bambi (1942).

Cammie King
King as Bonnie Blue Butler in
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Born
Eleanore Cammack King

(1934-08-05)August 5, 1934
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedSeptember 1, 2010(2010-09-01) (aged 76)
Fort Bragg, California, U.S.
Resting placeHoly Cross Cemetery, Culver City
OccupationChild actress
Years active1938–1942
Clark Gable and Cammie King in Gone With the Wind (1939)

Early life and family

King was born in Los Angeles, California, on August 5, 1934.[1] Her parents were W. Cammack King, a chemical plant manager, and Eleanore King, a schoolteacher. Her older sister, Diane, was a child actress.[2] Her parents divorced a few years after the filming of Gone With the Wind. Her mother remarried to Herbert Kalmus, co-founder of Technicolor, in 1949.[3]

Acting career

While her acting career only spanned four years during her childhood, she appeared in two of the biggest films of the era, Gone with the Wind and Bambi. She landed the part of Bonnie Blue Butler in Gone With the Wind at the age of four, after casting directors had tested 250 applicants for the role, including her seven-year-old sister Diane. After Diane was deemed too old for the part, she told the staff, "My sister looks like me and is only four and she can read lines".[2] Cammie did remember her lines, but she was unable keep her eyelids from moving during Bonnie's death scene and was fitted with a death mask. An adult male little person served as a body double for Bonnie's fall from the horse.[3]

Cammie provided the voice of Faline as a fawn in Disney's 1942 film Bambi.[3] According to the Los Angeles Times, she was cast in a third role in the early 1940s but broke out with chicken pox on the day filming began and was dropped from the cast list.[3] Reflecting on her film career, she once joked, "I peaked at 5".[3]

Education and later career

King studied at Marymount High School[1] and went on to attend the University of Southern California, graduating in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in communications. Afterwards she worked as a production assistant on Climax!, a CBS-TV anthology series.[3]

In 1980, she moved to Northern California and had a long public-relations career that included working for the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce.[3] In the early 2000s, King made a guest appearance as a contestant on the TV game show To Tell the Truth, hosted by John O'Hurley. She spent 40 years working as a marketing coordinator for the Fort Bragg-Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce.[4]

King often appeared at retrospectives with the surviving Gone With the Wind cast members.[3] In 2009, she privately published a small book, Bonnie Blue Butler: A Gone With the Wind Memoir, mainly selling copies directly to fans via personal appearances and the internet.

Personal life

She married Walter "Ned" Pollock in 1957. Together they adopted two children, Matthew and Katharine. Pollock died of cancer in 1968. She then married Michael W Conlon in 1971, and he adopted her two children. She and Conlon divorced in 1975.[4] Her father-in-law from her second marriage, Judd Conlon, was a musical arranger for many Disney films including Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953).

King died on September 1, 2010, at her home in Fort Bragg, California, at age 76, from lung cancer.[5]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1939Blondie Meets the BossMillieUncredited[6]
1939Gone with the WindBonnie Blue Butler[7]
1942BambiVoice of Young FalineUncredited[8]
2010Change in the WindNarratorVoice

References
  1. "Eleanore Cammack King Conlon". Los Angeles Times. legacy.com. September 19, 2010. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  2. "Tiny Girl Wins Coveted Role". Santa Ana Register. February 23, 1940. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Nelson, Valerie J. (September 3, 2010). "Actor played daughter in 'Gone With the Wind'". Los Angeles Times. p. 19 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Boone, Christine (September 2, 2010). "Actress who played Rhett and Scarlett's daughter dies". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on September 7, 2010. Retrieved September 2, 2010. Conlon, who married twice and had two children, eventually settled north of San Francisco, working as a marketing coordinator for the Fort Bragg-Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce.
  5. Soares, Andre (September 2, 2010). "Cammie King Dies: Played Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh's Daughter in GONE WITH THE WIND". Alt Film Guide. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  6. "Blondie Meets the Boss (1939)". American Film Institute Catalog. 2019. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  7. "Gone With the Wind (1939)". American Film Institute Catalog. 2019. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  8. "Bambi (1942)". American Film Institute Catalog. 2019. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
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