Wednesday, September 3, 2008

In a world ... without Don LaFontaine



Don LaFontaine, the man behind the most ubiquitous voice ever, died over the weekend at age 68. While this isn't exactly HUGE news, it is interesting to me because I used to work for a guy named Bill Moffett who had a lot of the same mannerisms and a voice very similar to LaFontaine's. Sometimes, while sitting around with the staff in his office or while cutting a radio spot he would launch into a spontaneous parody of LaFontaine that was always very funny. There's just something funny about hearing one voicever guy mimicking another voiceover guy perfectly.

Also, I got to thinking in the past couple of days... LaFontaine's voice was almost literally EVERYWHERE. Movie trailers, TV show promos, radio ads and on and on will never sound the same again. Let's hope they don't get some imitator that sounds kinda like him to pick up where he left off. Now that their go-to guy is gone, this could be a real chance for the industry to break some new ground. I hope they do.

2 comments:

M. Blohm said...

Okay, do you listen to NPR at the same time I am listening?! Oh, there are other news sources? I have to admit I was fascinated by the fact that LaFontaine also recorded answering machine/voice mail messages for fans. Cool, huh?

James Pharaon said...

I thought that was very cool.

What the heck is NPR?