Famous for recording more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers, Donald Leroy "Don" LaFontaine was born August 25, 1940 in Duluth, Minnesota.
His epic voice? Apparently it was meant to be, breaking mid-sentence at age 13 and changing his life forever. His influence would reach far and wide, to the point we all imitate him when we're down the pub, thinking up our own fantastic movies. Even the voice over guys of today don't try and stray too far from his deep, gruff tones.
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. After MGM bought the spots, LaFontaine began a career as a voiceover artist.
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 a 2007 interview, LaFontaine explained the strategy behind his signature catch phrase with the following:
"We have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting them to. That's very easily done by saying, "In a world where... violence rules." "In a world where... men are slaves and women are the conquerors." You very rapidly set the scene."
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. He died on this day in 2008, six days after his 68th birthday, following complications from a pneumothorax.
His final television voice over role was for the Phineas and Ferb episode "The Chronicles of Meap" in which he parodied himself, as he famously enjoyed to do. The episode also ended with a short tribute to him. His final movie trailer voice-over was for Call + Response, a documentary about global slave trade, for which he donated his talent.
Below is a clip, featuring an interview with the man himself, as well as some of his admirers.
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