38 AMERICANWAY
OCTOBER 1 2008
ILLUSTRATIONBY JOSHUAGORCHOV
E N T E R T A I N M E N T
Voice
Recognition
You’llNEVERhEAR
the shoot-’em-upWestern
Gunfighters ofCasaGrande
mentionedas
oneof the seminal filmsof the 1960s.But there’sanargument tobemade that themovie—
or at least the radio ad— launched a phenomenon that has had an impact on every single
moviegoer in the40-plusyears since its release. See, itwas the
Gunfighters
radiopromotion
that first introducedAmericans to the smooth, deepbaritone voice of the lateDonLaFon-
taine, a then unknown radio writer, producer, and recording engineer who stepped in to
narrate the spotwhen theannouncerwhohadbeenhired todo the job failed to showup.
Itmight soundhyperbolic to ascribe such importance to a now-obscuremovie preview.
But if you’ve been to amovie theater and have sat through the coming attractions at any
time since Lyndon Johnsonwas president, you’ve heardLaFontaine’s voice exhorting you
to see suchflicks as
Get Smart
,
MeetDave
,
The Terminator
,
Shrek
, and on and on. In fact,
LaFontainevoiced thenarrationonmore than5,000films— sometimeshe recordedup to
26 sessions per day—whichmakes him the singlemost prolific actor (basedupon signed
contracts) in thehistoryof theScreenActorsGuild.
WhileLaFontaine,whowas interviewedby
AmericanWay
beforehedied inSeptember,
wascertainlythemostubiquitousvoiceactor,hewasn’ttheonlyoption inHollywood.Today,
about 20 men (there are no women who
work consistently in this capacity) provide
the voices for the movie trailers that stu-
dios rely on to lure audiences into theaters.
Working primarily from their own home
studios— a departure from the days when
they had to brave Los Angeles’s notorious
traffic to do their work at different record-
ing studios, something that LaFontaine, in
such demand, did in a limo— these select
voice actors have carved out an enviable
niche. With consistent voice work in com-
mercials, promotions, and trailers, they can
bring in seven-figure incomesannually, and
do sowithout evenhaving to change out of
theirbathrobes.
And they can trace their lineage to La-
Fontaine, who actually began his career
penning scripts for trailers and is credited
withcreatingstill-usedcatchphrasessuchas
“In aworldwhere…” and “one-man army.”
Inaworld fullofmovie
trailers, ahandful of
voice-overactorshave
becomeone-man (vocal)
armies.
ByChrisWarren
