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Don LaFontaine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Don LaFontaine (born August 26, 1940 in Duluth, Minnesota) is a voice actor famous for recording over 5,000 movie trailers, television commercials, network promotions, and video game trailers. His signature voice is both ominous and sonorous. He is often nicknamed "The King of Movie Trailers", "Mr. Voice," "Thunder Throat" or "The Voice of God", and credited with helping to create the modern movie trailer. Many of his voiceovers take the format of "In a world where (some negative condition), one (usually person) will (do something positive)". He has also parodied this cliché several times.
His favorite movie trailer that he did a voice over for was the hit slasher film Friday the 13th.[citation needed]
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His career began as a recording engineer at the National Recording Studios, where he had the opportunity to work with Floyd Peterson producing promo spots for Dr. Strangelove. Peterson incorporated many of LaFontaine’s ideas for the spots, and not long after, they went into business together. While working on the 1964 western Gunfighters of Casa Grande, LaFontaine had to fill in for an unavailable voice actor to finish a client’s presentation. Not long after, the client bought the spots, and LaFontaine’s career as a voice actor had been sealed. Prior and into the 1970s, LaFontaine developed his signature style of a strong narrative approach, and heavy melodramatic coloration of his voice work.
LaFontaine’s signature voice has commanded a busy schedule. He is said to voice about 60 promotions a week, and as many as 35 in a single day. It has been said that his voice-over can add prestige and excitement to what may otherwise be a snoozer movie. Most studios are willing to pay a high fee for his service, thanks in no small part to his rigorous efforts and golden voice. His income is reportedly six to seven figures per year.[1]
Famous for being driven to voice-over jobs in a personalized limo with a full time driver, so as not to waste time parking and going from job to job, more recently he has begun recording many promotions from his own palatial estate in the Hollywood Hills, saving the time from traveling to many high-profile recording studios. This is mainly due to the advent of the Internet where a file can be recorded and e-mailed to a studio within seconds.
Similar voice actors Tex Brashear, Hal Douglas and Peter Cullen have all been categorized as being a close copy to the style of LaFontaine, and are sometimes confused with LaFontaine.
Some noticeable spots of his work are in the trailers to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and various segments on Jeopardy!, in categories such as DR. SEUSS AT THE MULTIPLEX, COMING SOON… HISTORY!, FOOD A LAFONTAINE, and NURSERY RHYME PREVIEWS. Most recently he has been featured in a GEICO commercial that began airing in August 2006, where he is introduced as "that announcer guy from the movies".
He also appeared on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, where he played "Not my job" (a game in which famous people have to accurately answer questions totally unrelated to their chosen professions). The prize (for a listener, not the contestant) is "Carl Kassel's voice on your home answering machine". LaFontaine did not win the game, and offered to do the answering machine message himself instead.
LaFontaine and fellow voiceover pro Joe Cipriano were interviewed on The Paul Harris Show [1] on May 5, 2005 on the St. Louis radio station KMOX 1120AM. They discussed their careers, tips for others, and their contributions to Joan Baker's book, Secrets of Voiceover Success. Neither LaFontaine nor Cipriano was in the studio with Harris — they were each in their own home studios in Los Angeles, connected to the show via ISDN lines.
His other performances include:
- Fillmore! - Announcer
- The Terminator -Trailer Voice-over
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Trailer Voice-over
- Cast Away - Trailer Voice-over
- The Godfather - Trailer Voice-over
- Fatal Attraction - Trailer Voice-over
- Batman - Trailer Voice-over
- Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) - Trailer Voice-over
- Daddy Day Care - Trailer Voice-over
- Chicken Run - Trailer Voice-over
- Dr. Strangelove - Trailer Voice-over
- PowerSlave (video game) - Narrator
- Extreme Makeover Home Edition - Commercial Voice-over
- The Land Before Time - Commercial Voice-over
- 79th Academy Awards - Co-announcer of the 79th Oscars.
His voice has been the subject of parody and satire, as seen in a Cartoon Network commercial for The Powerpuff Girls, the stand-up comedy of Pablo Francisco, and on the popular web-cartoon site Homestar Runner. Comedian-actress Janeane Garofalo formerly performed "an impression of every movie trailer ever made" with the words, "In a WORLD!..." saying that every movie trailer seems to begin with LaFontaine saying, "In a world..." or "In a town..."
LaFontaine has also participated in some of his satire, as evidenced by his voice in "North by North Quahog", an episode on the FOX animated series Family Guy. His voice has also been featured in musical tracks.
He is also mentioned in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Antenna". In the episode, George Lowe bemoans the fact that he cannot get a voiceover job while LaFontaine earns "30,000 dollars a minute".
His voice can also be heard on the promo clip for The HD-DVD Official Web Site.
- The Age (Australia), November 29, 2003: Trailer talk Article about Don LaFontaine by Alan Gelder.
- Announcer's test "One hen, Two ducks... "