StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Drooling Iguana wrote:Wow. I always suspected that every movie trailer voiceover was done by the same guy but I never knew who it actually was. Things are going to be a lot different with him gone.

Academia Nut wrote:And, 2008, the year of the dead celebrity, continues. Seriously, it seems like there's been a particularly high body count this year. Authors, musicians, entertainers... it just goes on.

Big Orange wrote:

Academia Nut wrote:So I'm not crazy(er) in thinking the same thing too?! 2008 has really been a shitty year for celebrity deaths and most of them weren't old, ranging from very young (Heath Ledger) to late middle age (Don S. Davis), while just the other day in the UK successful comedy writer, Geoffrey Perkins, died in a car smash at only 55.

Academia Nut wrote:And, 2008, the year of the dead celebrity, continues. Seriously, it seems like there's been a particularly high body count this year. Authors, musicians, entertainers... it just goes on.

Don LaFontaine

Voiceover artist known as Thunder Throat whose distinctive tones trailed film and television attractions.

Last Updated: 11:26PM BST 02 Sep 2008

Don LaFontaine, who died on Monday aged 68, was known as the "King of Voiceovers," recording more than 5,000 film trailers, television commercials, network and video game promotions.

His signature deep voice – sounding as if it had been pickled in whisky and kippered by countless cigarettes – was both ominous and sonorous, becoming identified with the phrase "In a world...", which was used in Hollywood trailers so frequently that it became a cliché. Nicknamed variously "Thunder Throat" and even "the voice of God", LaFontaine was said to have voiced about 60 promotions a week, and sometimes as many as 35 in a single day.

Within the business a LaFontaine voiceover conferred added prestige and excitement to what might otherwise have been a "snoozer" film. Thanks to his golden voice, most studios were willing to pay handsomely for his services, and his income reportedly ran into millions.

Though he was usually driven to voiceover jobs in a personalised limousine with a full-time driver, LaFontaine latterly began recording many promotions from his own palatial estate in the Hollywood Hills to save travelling time.

As well as being the pre-eminent voice in the film trailer industry, LaFontaine also worked as the voice of the main American television and cable networks.

He voiced hundreds of thousands of television and radio spots, including commercials for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Budweiser, McDonalds, Coke, and many other corporate sponsors, and recently parodied himself on a series of national television commercials for an insurance company.

Donald LaFontaine was born on August 26 1940 at Duluth, Minnesota. After graduating from high school, he joined the military and was assigned to the United States Army Band and Chorus as a recording engineer.

After his discharge, he moved to New York where he found work as a sound engineer and editor.

In 1962 he was assigned to a young radio producer called Floyd L Peterson, who was creating radio commercials for the film Dr Strangelove.They worked so well together that, in January 1963, LaFontaine joined Peterson, making it a two-man operation, working out of Peterson's apartment.

Over the next few years, the company rapidly grew to employ 30 people and expanded into its own building. Floyd L Peterson Inc was one of the first companies to work exclusively in film advertising. Hitherto, most film promotion had been done in-house by the studios.

It was during this period that the format for the modern trailer – previewing coming attractions – was developed, and LaFontaine and Peterson were among the first to create the catchphrases that still dominate the genre: "In a world… ", "A one-man army… ", "Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and no way out… " and so on.

In 1965 a mix-up in scheduling prevented another announcer from getting to a recording session, and LaFontaine was forced to create a "scratch" narration for radio spots for the film Gunfighters Of Casa Grande in order to present something to the client, Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

To his surprise, they bought his performance, and over the next 16 years he voiced thousands of spots and hundreds of trailers.

LaFontaine spent several years as a head of production for Kaleidoscope Films, one of the main trailer production houses. In 1976 he started his own production company, his first assignment as an independent being The Godfather: Part II.

In 1978 he joined Paramount Pictures as head of the trailer department, and over the next three years became the "voice" of that studio. Leaving in 1981, he moved to Los Angeles, again as an independent producer. One of his first phone calls was from a young agent named Steve Tisherman, who urged LaFontaine to pursue voiceovers more aggressively. Having signed with Tisherman, he never looked back.

LaFontaine worked on nearly 5,000 films, including appearances as the in-show announcer for the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards. Based on contracts signed, he had the distinction of being perhaps the single busiest actor in the guild's history.

Don LaFontaine was married to the singer and actress Nita Whitaker, who survives him with their two daughters.

2000AD wrote:A nice suggestion from the guys at Hijinks Ensure. Since we already have Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th, don't forget) why not have a Talk Like Don LaFontaine day (or for the uneducated Talk Like a Movie Trailer Day) on September 1st?