Don LaFontaine, the guy whose voice you can hear in just about every movie trailer ever (examples after the jump), died yesterday in L.A.
LaFontaine’s agent, Vanessa Gilbert, tells ET that he passed away following complications from Pneumothorax, the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity, the result of a collapsed lung. The official cause of death has not yet been released.
Over the past 25 years, LaFontaine cemented his position as the “King of Voiceovers.” Aside from being the preeminent voice in the movie trailer industry, Don also worked as the voice of Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, as well as for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and UPN, in addition to TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network. By conservative estimates, he voiced hundreds of thousands of television and radio spots, including commercials for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Budweiser, McDonalds, Coke, and many other corporate sponsors. [ET]
Well that sucks. Movie previews will never be the same. If I’d been born with a voice like Don LaFontaine, I surely would’ve been corrupted by its power; used it to bilk people out of their life savings and talk young girls into various degradery. Don LaFontaine just wanted the plot to sound a little cooler. He will be missed.
UPDATE: Not an update, just thought this was a little more important than Anne Hathaway’s boobs (even though they are nice).
[Thanks to RoboPanda for the tip]
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John Ratzenberger will give a powerhouse performance in “LaFontaine: The Voice That Made Us Think Bruckheimer Movies Wouldn’t Suck.”
Burnsy,
Pixar is going to do a documentary?
You mean…it’s okay that I sound like that too?
“In a world…where Michelle has a penis…”
Finally, Gilbert Gottfried can fulfill his destiny.
“IN A WORLD WHERE TWO PEOPLE – OH MY GOD, IS THAT TOM CRUISE!?!? THIS MOVIE SUCKS!”
Now maybe the writing on faces genre pioneered by The Spirit ads will finally take off.
Poor Vanessa Gilbert. Looks like it’s back to bus station handjobs.
Stone, I swear to Sheba I was about to make the same comment. Kiss me now.
Mrs. Butterworth is glad for the opportunity this opens up.
The Joan Rivers Geico commercial makes my ears shit blood.
And so ends my dreams of having Don LaFontaine narrate my first threesome.
Yeah, sorry Burnsy, that means Im out.
He would have been a great eugoogleizer too.
KAAAAAAAAAHN!
This is why I love the Michelle
judging by his voice, shouldn’t he look more like one of those deamons from “ghost”…or a giant minotaur.
yes, alex, that was meant to be in the form of a question
Eibz will put a bug in yer ear for lack of punctuation.
in todays digital age there is no need for us to miss this guy. The studios and trailer makers can just spllice together bits from all the other voice overs he’s done. Trailer voice overs don’t differ much so it’ll be a breeze.
Burnsey you could probably do the same thing for you threesome, just splice togther a bunch of stuff and hit play.
can it please not be a roach? i heard all about what they do. “:;&$%?,. there’s an advance deposit, eibz.
That’s true, fleckwa. Now I just need to find 4.2 seconds of voice recording to splice together.
Michelle’s new avi makes me warm and happy inside. Or hungry. I’m not sure which.
New Up!
Voice of the movies dead at 68
I’m kind of relieved. I was always afraid to turn around and tell him to be quiet.
18 million black people have been auditioning for his job for 30 years.
Tippin’ my 40 to my homey…
The “update” made me think maybe someone buried him in the pet cemetery.
The only way this story could be more important than Anne Hathaway’s boobs is if the title were “Voice of the Movies Dead at 69, With Anne Hathaway.”
Where was Matthew McConaughey’s mom when Don died?
+10 for GPP’s use of Beetlejuice in your avatar. I’m 47 years old.
Thanks Stony. I’m on the “closer to death” side of 40 myself.
Somewhere, Frank Caliendo is praying for John Madden’s continued health as he peruses the want ads…
I don’t think Caliendo can do a convincing Obama, can he?
“In a world, where there is no movie announcer guy to say, ‘In a world where there is no movie announcer guy, who will say, ”In a world were there is no movie announcer voice guy to say, I a world…
…ahhhhh!!!
{!!pop!! head explodes}
The ‘I’m 47 years old’ was a poorly referenced Beetlejuice quote from an old Howard show.
The exchange went something like this (you can read this in his voice, of course):
Howard: “Beetle – how old are you?”
Beetlejuice: “Me? I’m 30 years old.”
Howard: “Ok. Have you ever been in the military?”
Beetlejuice: “Me? Yeah, I was in the marines.”
Howard: “How old are you again?”
Beetlejuice: “Me? I’m 47 years old.”
TheJoan RiversGeico commercialmakesmyears shit blood.Fixed!
{hands cramp due to typing HTML code instead of JUST HITTING A FUCKING BUTTON!!!}
Collinsworth can go fuck a light socket!!
I feel especially sorry for the widow who has to constantly endure people yelling at her over the phone to “quit fucking picking it goddamn up, I want to hear his answering machine greeting!”
NEW UP, SOCKETFUCKERS!!!
I was always hoping they could get this guy to be the voice prompts for my bank’s automated phone system –
“In a world where you’d like to hear your current balance, you’d have no choice but to press one.”
“En un mundo donde tu habla espanol, marque numero dos.”
That really sucks. What HASN’T this guy done with his life? Such a pity.