Don LaFontaine
“In a world where no one can be trusted, one man will risk it all.” You know that stereotypical line. You know that voice. It’s the voice that you hear in the background during a movie trailer. That deep, dramatic, almost hypnotic voice that you hear, but never really think about. If you pay attention to just about any movie trailer, you’ll notice that the voice-over is usually done by the same person. It’s one of those things that you usually pay no attention to, but when you do you say to yourself, “Wow! That’s someone’s job!”If you still don’t know what I’m talking about, go watch just about any movie trailer and listen to the guy’s voice in the background. His name is Don LaFontaine, and he’s been doing voice-over work for decades now. He got started around 1964 when he was asked to cover for another voice-over talent, and after that his career took off. He’s done well over 4000 recordings for everything from movies to videogame trailers. LaFontaine is in such high demand right now that he does, on average, about 60 recordings a week and is basically the go to guy in the industry. When asked if he had any advice for wannabe voice-over talents he said, “Wait ‘til I die.”
LaFontaine just happened to be in the right place at the right time. You have to think that a lot of his success can be chalked up to luck. He just has one of those million dollar voices that everyone has come to know. I’m sure he didn’t grow up wanting to do voice-over work to the extent that he is, but he figured out what his talent was and how he could use it to his advantage. Now, he is the industry leader when it comes to that type of work. He’s said to make 7 figures a year. Not a bad income considering he just makes recordings for movies, TV, and various other platforms.
I’m sure LaFontaine didn’t expect to be making 7 figures a year just because of his voice, but sometimes the pieces just fall together, and you wind up doing something that you never thought you would do. For LaFontaine, all those pieces fell together and it’s really paid off.
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