You can watch episode 5 of Voice Over Histories (Behind the Mic with Don LaFontaine) here! The transcript of the episode is below (without transcription of footage of interviews/clips that feature in the episode).
Transcript of Behind the Mic with Don LaFontaine
Welcome to episode 5 of Voice Over Histories, I’m Katie Aitken and this is the docu-series that shines a light on the people, the projects and the stories from the voice over industry throughout the years.
We're going back behind the mic today to be ‘in a world’ with another legendary voice over artist - Don LaFontaine.
Even if you're not familiar with the name Don LaFontaine, you are almost certainly familiar with his work.
His is the voice you automatically hear in your head when you imagine a film trailer - that deep voice bringing an epic grandeur to the narration of the trailer. The ones that classically open with the line “in a world…”
LaFontaine was born and raised in Minnesota, USA. The story of this truly iconic voice begins when he was 13 years old, when he claims that his voice spontaneously broke while he was mid-sentence. His new voice started to pay dividends pretty quickly since his classmates saw the value in this deep, powerful voice and paid him to pretend to be their fathers, explaining that they were sick and taking the day off, allowing them to play hooky.
After graduating from high school in Duluth in 1958, he joined the army and was assigned to The United States Army Band and Chorus as a recording engineer. This experience, dipping his toes into the world of audio, lit a passion and following his discharge from the services, he continued working as a recording engineer at the National Recording Studios in New York.
It was in 1962 that he met Floyd L Peterson, a young radio producer. Together, they worked on various radio spots, including Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove.
The partnership blossomed and the following year, they went into business together, creating movie advertising. They started their enterprise in Peterson’s apartment but it didn’t take long for business to boom.
Soon they had more than 30 employees and were amongst the first to deal exclusively with advertising for motion pictures. Their timing could not have been better as the very concept of having trailers that acted as previews for soon to be released films, was at its infancy, meaning that catchphrases and staple lines that we are still familiar with today, were born. Peterson and LaFontaine created the likes of the aforementioned “In a world” as well as “A one man army” and “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no way out”.
But let’s go back to LaFontaine's actual break into voiceover.
It happened in 1964, and was in fact as a result of a scheduling mix up. La Fontaine had written the copy for the radio spot for the film, Gunfighters of Casa Grande - and another artist was due to come in to narrate the presentation to the client, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. When the voice over didn’t show up, LaFontaine jumped in, leading to MGM not only buying their concept, but also his performance!
In 1976, he started his own production company, Don LaFontaine Associates. The first job he landed through his own independent company was the trailer for ‘The Godfather Part II’. Then in 1978, he joined Paramount Pictures, heading up their trailer department and becoming the voice of Paramount.
During the 3 years he spent at Paramount, he voiced trailers for huge hit films such as Batman Returns, The Terminator, Ghostbusters and Rambo. When asked in later interviews what his favourite voice over for a film trailer was, he credits it as being David Lynch’s ‘The Elephant Man’ in 1980.
He left Paramount in 1981 when he moved to LA. In LA, he would meet Steve Tisherman, a young agent who LaFontaine signed with. Tisherman helped to further bolster and expand LaFontaine’s already extensive voiceover portfolio.
As the go-to voice over guy for trailers, it is said that he could be voicing up to 35 promotions per day, bringing in millions each year. Across his entire career, he narrated over 5,000 movie trailers.
Not only that, LaFontaine also voiced hundreds of thousands of TV and radio spots (according to SAG AFTRA, at last count, it was around 750,000!) including commercials for Ford, Coke, McDonalds and Budweiser - as well as being the voice of NBC, CBS, Fox and Cartoon Network, to name but a few.
LaFontaine received a good deal of recognition for his work and achievements with key moments including being honoured at Cannes International Film Festival in 2000 and being awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hollywood Reporter’s Key Art Awards in 2005.
So recognisable was LaFontaine for his trailer voiceovers and broadcast channel affiliations that he has credits parodying himself as ‘the voiceover guy’. For example, he has starred in top animations such as Family Guy, playing the ‘FOX announcer’ and American Dad and Phineas and Ferb as ‘the movie trailer announcer’. His prestige as ‘that announcer guy from the movies’ was also such an established part of pop-culture that he found himself in commercials, such as for Hollywood Video Stores in the late 90s and GEICO’s 2006 ad campaign.
Based on signed contracts, Don LaFontaine may very well hold the distinction for being the busiest actor in the history of the Screen Actors Guild, an absolutely outstanding achievement. Arguably even more incredible given that he wasn’t doing character work - it was all him. All his unmistakable voice. He is known for practically inventing the voiceover niche of movie trailer narration and following his death in 2008, there was such a significant decline in the number of voiceovers in trailers that they are now pretty rare.
If this wasn’t legacy enough, there are an innumerous number of mentions from people who actually knew him about his kindness and his humour. It was these human qualities as well as his talent that earned him such respect both in the industry and beyond.
As a voiceover artist, I think that his huge success aside, it is his innovation and unwavering passion for the medium as well as how is remembered by his peers and the public that is inspiring. And I feel very lucky to be ‘in a world’ with icons like Don LaFontaine to look up to.
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