Don LaFontaine
He began his telling of the customer s story with his trademark In a world… . LaFontaine was a recurring guest narrator for clues on the game show Jeopardy! In 2006, GEICO began airing an ad campaign in which actual customers told their own stories of GEICO experiences, accompanied by a celebrity who helped them make the story interesting.After MGM bought the spots, LaFontaine began a career as a voiceover artist. He became the head of Kaleidoscope Films Ltd., a major movie trailer producer before starting his own company, Don LaFontaine Associates, in 1976. In the commercial, he was introduced as that announcer guy from the movies , with his name printed on-screen to identify him.
LaFontaine credited the spot as life-changing for having exposed his name and face to a significant audience, noting, There goes any anonymity I might have had… On Friday, August 22, 2008, LaFontaine was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California with a blood clot in his lungs and was reported to be in critical condition the following Tuesday. Some notable trailers which LaFontaine highlighted in the intro on his official website include: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Shrek, Friday the 13th, Law & Order and Batman Returns.
He parodied his career several times, most recently in commercials for GEICO insurance and the Mega Millions lottery game. LaFontaine was born August 26, 1940, in Duluth, Minnesota, to Alfred and Ruby LaFontaine. While working on the 1964 western Gunfighters of Casa Grande, LaFontaine had to fill in for an unavailable voice actor in order to have something to present to MGM. All his own. The credit sequence had been designed as a trailer for the next Meap episode, or as LaFontiane put it, Episode 40 -- Meapless in Seattle .
At his peak, he voiced about 60 promotions a week, and sometimes as many as 35 in a single day. The trailer is voiced by fellow voiceover artist Stephen Fry. LaFontaine s voice was used in Family Guy episodes North by North Quahog , and Brian Sings and Swings , and The Untold Story version of Stewie B.
One man, in a land, in a time, in a world.. With John Walsh announcing prior to the dedication sign that Don LaFontaine had died at the age of 68. On the evening of September 7, 2008, Adult Swim had a banner sign that said: Don LaFontaine . At the end of the credit sequence in the Phineas and Ferb episode Chronicles of Meap there is a message on screen saying In Memoriam..
Comedian-actress Janeane Garofalo formerly performed an impression of every movie trailer ever made with the words, In a WORLD!… saying that every movie trailer seems to begin with LaFontaine saying, In a world… or In a city… One trailer for The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy defines what a trailer is, saying the narrator “will normally employ a deep voice that sounds like a seven-foot-tall man who has been smoking cigarettes since childhood” and speaks in a clear parody of LaFontaine. Goode , and has been featured in musical tracks. In the late 1990s, LaFontaine made an appearance as himself in a commercial for the Hollywood Video rental chain.
With the advent of ISDN technology, LaFontaine built a recording studio in his Hollywood Hills home and began doing his work from home. LaFontaine was the voice of thousands of movie trailers over his career, spanning every genre. LaFontaine was contacted by an agent who wanted to promote him for voiceover work.
Shortly thereafter, he was hired by Paramount to do their trailers, and was eventually promoted to a vice president. For a time, LaFontaine had a near-monopoly on movie trailer voiceovers.
Don LaFontaine 08/26/40 - 09/01/08. LaFontaine stated in 2007 that his favorite work in a movie trailer was for the hit biographical film The Elephant Man, In a 2007 interview, LaFontaine explained the strategy behind his signature catch phrase, in a world where… : LaFontaine also did other voice work, including as the announcer for the newscasts on WCBS-TV New York, from 2000 to 2001.
Donald Leroy LaFontaine He became identified with the phrase In a world… , which has been used in movie trailers so frequently that it has become a cliché. In the ad, LaFontaine emerged from under a counter when called on by an employee to deliver a description of a movie in the style of his trailer voiceovers, to a customer hesitant about renting the film. He is also mentioned in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode Antenna .
As the Disney Channel Original vanity card appears, you hear him say, In a world..there, I said it. Once he established himself, most studios were willing to pay a high fee for his service.
In the episode, George Lowe bemoans the fact that he cannot get a voiceover job while LaFontaine earns 30,000 dollars a minute. Lowe attempts an impression of LaFontaine, saying, In a world where towers rule the universe… On April 12, 2007, LaFontaine appeared on an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno with ousted American Idol finalist Haley Scarnato to provide humorous movie trailer -esque commentary, as a spoof of his Geico commercial. On November 20, 2007, he appeared along with Frank Caliendo and Pablo Francisco, who both impersonate LaFontaine s movie trailer voice, on Caliendo s Frank TV sketch comedy show on TBS in a sketch that parodied The Three Tenors. In March 2008, Don appeared in a short comedy sketch called “Dream-A-Wish” produced by online comedy group Magic Hugs. . His income was reportedly in the millions. LaFontaine often had jobs at a number of different studios each day, and famously hired a driver to take him from studio to studio in order to save time finding parking.
LaFontaine was featured as the celebrity in one of these ads which began airing in August 2006. However, he decided to get back into trailer work, left Paramount, moving to Los Angeles in 1981.
Happy? His voice has been the subject of homage and parody, as seen in a Cartoon Network commercial for The Powerpuff Girls, the stand-up comedy of Pablo Francisco. His family made a public appeal for prayers on the Mediabistro.com site. On September 6, 2008, AMW showed a visual with a picture of him with words below that said In Memorium: Don LaFontaine August 26, 1940 - September 1, 2008.
Thereafter, LaFontaine worked in voiceovers.
