“The Voice”

photo by Aaron Farley

This might be a little old news for some but I just found out that Don La Fontaine died on Sept 2 at the age of 68. He was the voice that we will always remember from the trailers. He was the Narrator in the movie: Behind the Scenes: Behind Enemy Lines and was the Announcer for The 79th Annual Academy Awards in 2007 In addition:

LaFontaine worked for every major U.S. network, including NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and UPN, in addition to TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network.

He also did spots for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Budweiser, McDonalds, Coke and many other corporate sponsors, according to his website.

He was the voice that everyone knew but know one knew his face. It was this mystery what got us so excited about listening to him. This mystery was his credibility. He was the mythical creature we all heard about at summer camp. If we were lucky we would stumble upon “the voice” and it was then that we would stop all conversation just to hear it. Not necessarily what was said that was important but the fact we were hearing it. It wasn’t until his Geico commercial came along that we all got to see what he looked like.

Although I was glad to learn what he looked like, I was a little saddend that I did. The mystery is gone but worse than that is the man who caused any B-list movie to have instant credibility is gone too.

Other Articles and Sites to View on Don LaFontaine

Don LaFontaine.com

Paste Magazine

The photographer Aaron Farley

IMBD