In a world…where movie trailers blend together and The Voice of God can be heard, stars the man himself, Don LaFontaine. He is a legend for voice acting, especially for film trailers, with over 5000 to his credit and then hundreds of thousands of hours for advertisements, promotions, and video game trailers. He worked in the industry from 1962 until his untimely passing in 2008. He has been called Thunder Throat and The King of Movie Trailers as well. Before he hit in big in advertising and trailers he grew up in Minnesota and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1958. While in the Army he was an audio engineer for the U.S. Army Band and U.S. Army Chorus. Post-service, he worked as a recording engineer for the National Recording Studio in NYC. He got his break in voice-over work in 1962, doing radio spots for Dr. Strangelove. There, he was assigned to an up-and-coming radio producer, Floyd Peterson. Peterson enjoyed his work with LaFontaine and integrated many of LaFontaine’s ideas into the radio spots. They began a partnership in 1963 and did advertising specifically for the movie industry.
LaFontaine got his next big break in 1964 for the MGM film Gunfighters of Casa Grande, in which LaFontaine subbed for one of the voice actors who was absent from post-production. Once MGM bought his spots he journeyed into voice acting. His career went further by becoming the top dog at a movie trailer production company named Kaleidoscope Films. He then started his own company, Don LaFontaine Associates in 1976 and was hired by Paramount Pictures to be their head of movie trailers. LaFontaine became a vice president at the company and then left the company in the early 1980s. He was signed by an agent upon his arrival in Los Angeles in the early 1980s and made further progress in the voice-over world. Lafontaine did around 60 promotions per week and up to 35 promotions per day. He was highly sought after and paid millions for his voice-over artistry.
He eventually moved his work to a private recording studio in his home and utilized internet access to complete his voice-over tasks. He is most known for the trailers for Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Shrek, Batman Returns, Friday the 13th, The Elephant Man, The Cannon Group and intros for Renegade, Rambo: The Force of Freedom and Team Knight Rider. He was parodied by stand-up comic Pablo Francisco for years in his stand-up bits for a fake Arnold Schwarzenegger action film named Little Tortilla Boy and narrated such projects as The Making of Star Wars, Boot Camp, America’s Most Wanted, The Third Eye, and World’s Most Amazing Videos. He even did guest narration for Jeopardy!, Viacom, WWE pay-per-view event, the Mega Millions lottery game and worked as a celebrity guest on a GEICO ad. He passed on August 22, 2008, in Los Angeles and was survived by his widow and three children. Another amazing legacy from a military veteran who followed his passion and talent. He leaves behind a treasure trove of great film trailers, voice-over artistry, and humor.