---
name: "Donn Gift"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/donn-gift"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "14 December 1933"
died: "8 July 1979"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-20T01:35:39.299320+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Donn Gift

Actor. Born 14 December 1933 in Danville, Illinois, USA. Died 8 July 1979.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 14 December 1933, Danville, Illinois, USA
- **Died:** 8 July 1979
- **Also known as:** Donald Ladd Smith
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0317556/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1273323

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*The Yearling*](https://film.one/film/the-yearling.md) (79)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Donn Gift was an American actor, also credited as Donald Ladd Smith. He is known for portraying Fodderwing Forrester in the 1946 MGM film *The Yearling*.

Gift appeared in a small number of films in the mid-to-late 1940s and early 1950s. His other credited roles include Jimmy in *Fighting Father Dunne* (1948), Timmy in *The Enchanted Valley* (1948) and The Big Man in *The Happy Years* (1950). He had an uncredited part as a messenger boy in *Man Alive* (1945). As a child he contracted polio and walked with a cane and leg brace, which suited him for roles depicting frail or sickly boys.

Gift died on 8 July 1979 in Los Angeles, California.

*Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, summersrun.wordpress.com, ancientfaces.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Yearling* (1946), Fi1m 79, as Fodderwing Forrester — [page](https://film.one/film/the-yearling.md)

## Complete filmography (4)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Happy Years* (1950), as Joshua Montgomery Smead
- *Fighting Father Dunne* (1948), as Jimmy
- *The Enchanted Valley* (1948), as Timmy
- *The Yearling* (1946), as Fodderwing Forrester — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/the-yearling.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/donn-gift