"Don LaFontaine, the movie guy, August 26, 1940 – September 1, 20

[Guest]

Don LaFontaine's voice was one of those which I admired greatly, and I very much respected his voiceover work. As an aspiring voiceover actor, he is one of the actors whose abilities I studied and I can only hope to be nearly as good someday. You probably remember his voice best for the multitude of movie trailers he voiced, and the ongoing joke is that they all begin with some variation of "In a world..." (where men were men and women were glad of it!). He died on Monday of complications due to a collapsed lung. He was 68, and will be missed by his family and his fans.

 

I don't know if he knew Christ or not. I sure hope so 'cause I wanna meet him someday.

 

 

Over the past 25 years, LaFontaine cemented his position as the "King of Voiceovers." Aside from being the preeminent voice in the movie trailer industry, Don also worked as the voice of Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, as well as for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and UPN, in addition to TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network. By conservative estimates, he voiced hundreds of thousands of television and radio spots, including commercials for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Budweiser, McDonalds, Coke, and many other corporate sponsors.

[Dart 0]

! Oh man.

 

Seems like it's been a rough month or so for the entertainment industry. Bernie Mac, Issac Hayes, LeRoi Moore, Don LaFontaine.

 

I don't know if it's that I'm getting older and I just know about more people... but when I was a kid, I never remember hearing about anyone dying. Now, it seems almost monthly that I hear of someone I knew of passing away.

 

And luvin', if you sound anything like Don LaFontaine... you need to do some lead-ins to the Hatches videos.

 

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPBvFXf9Q2U&NR=1 Check out this guy. Wow.

[sulfernut 0]

I hear ya Dart!! Seems like I'm getting news like this evey other day !!

Sulphernut

[sulfernut 0]

BTW, I saw on the "crawl" across the bottom of my local news screen this morning,that Singer/Actor Jerry Reed has gone to meet his maker!

See what I mean???

Sulphernut

[oatka 0]

I saw that news yesterday. I work supporting equipment that runs movies and the preshows, and I told a coworker yesterday that with this death, we will now see the end of movie trailers within 2 years. No one can replace that guy, he was great.

 

I remember seeing him on Dateline years ago. They asked him to intro Dateline as if it was a horror, comedy, love story, chick flick, etc, and he nailed the feeling everytime. man, i had never been so scared to watch Dateline after hearing that intro.

 

 

In a world...where there's no Don LaFontaine

[Steeldrifter 0]

BTW, I saw on the "crawl" across the bottom of my local news screen this morning,that Singer/Actor Jerry Reed has gone to meet his maker!

 

 

NOO!!! Not the "Snowman" ...I hadent heard that Reed passed

 

 

Its funny that Don LaFontaine was one of those guys that I have probably heard a million times, but never even knew his name until now.

 

 

[Guest]

 

 

Its funny that Don LaFontaine was one of those guys that I have probably heard a million times, but never even knew his name until now.

 

 

That's the good part about voiceover acting, you are a celebrity only in a small circle of people, and few people say "Don't I know you?" At least until they hear you speak, then they just look at you funny!

[Guest]

 

 

And luvin', if you sound anything like Don LaFontaine... you need to do some lead-ins to the Hatches videos.

 

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPBvFXf9Q2U&NR=1 Check out this guy. Wow.

 

Well, since you brought it up, here's my online resume with samples.