In A World Without Don LaFontaine
In a world without Don LaFontaine...
How will I ever get interested in a movie again?! Sadly, as you may have heard already, the man known as ‘movie trailer guy’ and ‘the voice of God’ Don LaFontaine has passed away from complications of a collapsed lung. He was 68. Many people knew him only by the sound of his voice until the recent Geico commercial put a face to the voice. A quick search on YouTube or Google Video, though, will turn up dozens of trailers, interviews and other recorded moments of his life.
From the age of 13 when his voice suddenly changed mid-sentence as he was offering to help his mother with the dishes, he became instantly famous, saying in one of his interviews “I suddenly became everybody’s dad. ‘Sorry, Jimmy can’t make it in to school today he’s not feeling well’. ” His big break in Hollywood coming when the man slated to read the trailer for “Gunfighters of Casa Grande” didn’t show, the studio asked him to record a trailer from scratch. They liked it, bought it and thus the star was born.
A conservative estimate puts the number of movie trailers he’s done at 5,000 and the number of TV spots at around 750,000. (For any of you 24 fans out there, that’s his voice in the previews). He has the distinction of being the single busiest actor in the Screen Actors Guild.
He is survived by his wife Nita Whitaker and their two daughters.
In a world without Don LaFontaine, movies just won’t be the same. Ever again.
