Donny Donowitz

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Donny Donowitz is the tritagonist of the Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds. He is a Jewish member of The Basterds and a right-hand man of Aldo Raine.

He is played by Eli Roth.

Biography[]

Donny Donowitz joined the Basterds along with eight other soldiers and was dropped into the French countryside some times before the beginning of Operation Overlord to spread chaos through the German ranks. He is soon known by the German soldiers by the nickname "Bear Jew" and gained notoriety for killing prisoners with a baseball bat. Adolf Hitler, outraged by the Basterds' success, remembers that some soldiers call the Bear Jew a golem.

When Hitler interrogates private Butz, the survivor of the latest Basterds attack, the soldier tells him his encounter with the Basterds and the Bear Jew. After Sgt. Werner Rachtman refuses to reveal the location of other German squads, Donny is heard hitting his bat against the walls of a tunnel, in an attempt to intimidate Werner, but he does not cave it and defies the Basterds, calling them "Jew dogs".

Aldo then calls Donny from his cave to kill Werner. Donny keeps hitting his bat against the wall for a minute before coming out of the cave, as all the Basterds outside begin cheering for him. Donny nudges Werner's Iron cross medal, asking him if he got that for killing Jews, to which Werner replied "Bravery". Donny then places his bat on Werner's temple and begins beating him to death with the bat, while the Basterds cheer and the other two German soldiers cry in horror. After finishing off Werner, Donny begins shouting Ted "Teddy Ballgame" Williams name and demands Ludwig be next, only for the German soldier to try to flee and get shot in the back by Hirschberg.

Donny then bring Butz at Aldo's request, and holds his bat the guy's head, to coerce him to reveal the location of more German squads. After Butz tells them everything he knows, Aldo carves a swastika on his forehead, to which Donny complements him that he's gotten pretty good at this hobby, with Aldo replying it's just like getting to Carnagie Hall: practice.

Right before D-Day, the Basterds cooperated with the British Lt. Archie Hicox and German actress Bridget von Hammersmark in Operation Kino, which aims to assassinate the Nazi high command in the premiere of "Nation's Pride", which is held in Shosanna's theatre. Donny with the other Basterds are taking shelter in an abandoned house across the tavern. He expressed his skepticism over Bridget's current situation and rendez-vous place, a basement tavern called La Louisiane, in the village of Nadine.

After their mission is compromised, he is seen at the vet clinic, holding a Luger pistol at Bridget's thigh, as Aldo interrogates her. When Bridget shows Aldo the movie tickets they were supposed to use to join the film premiere, Donny is seen reading one. After she reveals that Hitler himself will attend the premiere, Donny shouts "Fuck a duck!" in amazement. When Aldo decides they must attend the premiere, much to Bridget's annoyance than they don't speak other language than English, Donny tells Bridget that both he and Raine speak some Italian. Aldo decides that he'll pose as the escort, Donny as the cameraman, and Omar as Donny's assistant, even though the latter doesn't speak Italian.

The trio pose as von Hammersmark's Italian friends, carrying suicide bombs. When Hans Landa sees the group, he asks Donny's name, which he tells it in a very stereotypical fashion. It should be noted that while Donny's Italian is supposedly not as good as Aldo's, he actually tried to disguise his native accent, unlike Aldo who said his lines in a very thick Appalachian accent. When Bridget von Hammersmark tries to loose Landa by saying they need to get to their seats, Landa demands Donny and Omar's tickets, 0023 and 0024, and sends the two in the cinema auditorium, leaving Bridget and Aldo with him. In the auditorium, Donny and Omar look around seeing Goebbels and Francesca in one opera box, and Hermann Göring, Emil Jannings and Martin Bormann in the other opera box. When they reach their row, they discover their places are in the middle of German military. After an awkward look, they excuse themselves in Italian, and go for their places.

As they wait for Hitler to arrive with their bombs wrapped around their ankles, Landa kills Bridget, and has Aldo and Utivich transported to a closed bar, where Landa negotiates his surrender in exchange for allowing Operation Kino to continue. During the screening of the film, Donny leaves his place to see if Hitler has arrived. As he looks at his opera box door entrance, guarded by two soldiers, he suddenly sees the Führer himself exiting the door and asking one of the guards for some gum. Thrilled, Donny returns to the auditorium and calls Omar to come with him.

The duo enter the bathroom, where they plan to kill the guards, take their guns and kill Hitler. He tells Omar after he kills one of the guards, he has 30 ft. to kill the other one. Donny disguises himself as a waiter, concealing his OSS Glove pistol under a towel he cut with a concealed knife. Just as he shoots one of the guards in the head with the concealed gun, Omar jumps in and kills the other. After Marcel ignites the nitrate film pile, Donny and Omar burst into Hitler's box, emptying two MP40 magazines on Hitler and Goebbels, with Omar doing the same to Francesca. They then proceed to shoot at the audience below, not knowing that the doors were locked by Marcel. Donny empties his last magazine in Hitler's face, just in time before the bombs go off killing everybody in the cinema.