In A World Without Don LaFontaine

Everybody’s heard Don LaFontaine, even though they may not have known it. And now, we’ll never hear him again.

Don LaFontaine, the Godfather of Voice Overs, passed away Monday, September 1st, 2008 from complications after his lung collapsed. The official cause of death is yet undecided, but what are crystal clear are the repercussions.

We’ve all heard his work, and maybe made fun of it at some point. You know those – at times, over – dramatic narrations that accompany movie and TV trailers, many of them featuring the phrase “In a world…” That was his creation, and it was like his “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble!”* It’s near impossible to find out exactly how many of them he did during his life, although IMDb pegs it at more than 3,500 appearances. He was single-handedly responsible for brining announcing out of the era of Gary Owens (who is still working) and the guy who announced The Honeymooners into the modern era. Movie trailers as we know them would be totally different without his contribution.

But for me, Don LaFontaine was something a bit more personal. He was the first voice I could ever impersonate well, and watching him work on Entertainment Tonight was probably the first time I realized that someone could make a living staying at home and talking into a microphone. Anyone who knows someone who does voice-overs for a living knows that they are the happiest motherfuckers on the planet. Many have home studios, work a few hours out of the day, and have two-car garages. Without people with the caliber of Don LaFontaine, voice-over artists would be even more invisible than they are right now. But beyond the sheer capitalism, Don was an extraordinary talent. Few could make a legend out of doing the same routine for years without it growing stale. He is the Voice of the Movies today, just like Walter Kronkite is synonymous with The News. He was a legend in his field, and movie fans are going to miss him dearly.

It’s difficult to eulogize Don, because I never knew him personally, I don’t have any amusing anecdotes about who he was when he wasn’t working, and his body of work isn’t at the same level as someone like Ayn Rand of Stephen King. I know him as everyone else did, a voice booming out of Dolby speakers in a large room while Keanu Reeves dodges bullets fired at him by Will Smith. But even though they were over-the-top at times, a Don LaFontaine trailer felt familiar and comforting, like eating a hamburger from your favorite restaurant that you know is going to be good, and yet the fore-knowledge doesn’t spoil the sensations one bit. The world will certainly move on and movie trailers will keep informing us of what big projects are lining up to take turns sucking at our wallets. But without that booming baritone coming at us, the commercials will just not be the same.

From the bottom of my heart, as a movie fan and voice-over groupie… thank you, Don.