Writer of Pop Culture

1940: The Voice of Over 5,000 Movies is Born

You may not recognize Don LaFontaine’s face, but depending on old you are, you’ve probably heard his voice. Many times. Born on this day in 1940, LaFontaine made a name for himself recording movie trailers, TV commercials and even trailers for video games. He was best known for saying the phrase in a deep, dramatic voice: “In a world…”

LaFontaine, who was known by some as “Thunder Throat” and “The Voice of God”, made such an impact, many TV commercials for movies today use announcers that do a similar take on the dramatic reading. The funny thing is, he never intended on doing voice work.

LaFontaine was a recording engineer and in 1962, he created some radio commercials for the Stanley Kubrick movie, Dr. Strangelove. He hit it off with the movie’s producer and they went into business together. Legend has it that while working on a promo for the movie Gunfighters of Casa Grande, he had to fill in for one of the actor’s voices who wasn’t available to record. It was good enough for MGM who bought the spots, and he became a voiceover artist.

In 2006, LaFontaine did a Geico commercial where he was introduced as “that announcer guy from the movies”. His last voiceover job for a movie was for the documentary, Call + Response. But here’s a better story – his last voiceover work for TV was for Disney’s Phineas and Ferb cartoon series where his last line was, “In a world…There, I said it. Happy?”

Sadly, Don passed away on September 1, 2008, at the age of 68.

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