Voiceover Master Don LaFontaine's Frozen Vegetable Commercial
King of voiceovers Don LaFontaine died yesterday after complications from a collapsed lung. If you've ever been to a movie, you've more than likely heard LaFontaine's voice as you've munched your popcorn during the previews. From the Hollywood Reporter:
Before his death, he had provided voiceovers for an estimated 5,000 movie trailers, including Batman Returns, The Terminator, Cast Away, The Elephant Man and Dr. Strangelove. Many of those began with his catchphrase, "In a world where …"
Here's a video (after the jump) where LaFontaine lends his famous voice to a commercial for Birds Eye Steamfresh frozen vegetables.
In a world where his one-of-a-kind voice will be missed, our condolences go out to Mr. LaFontaine's wife and daughters.
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6 Comments:
Don was my favorite guy. I think they will digitize him.
Here is one of my favs of Don.
JerzeeTomato at 11:29PM on 09/02/08
@Jerzee: Thanks for commenting! I was afraid nobody 'round these parts knew of or loved LaFontaine's work. Doesn't look like your link came through. Mind posting it again? This is one of my favorite bits: 5 Guys in a Limo (possibly NSFW).
Adam Kuban at 11:31PM on 09/02/08
That's the kind of work I've always wanted; LaFontaine (and his wife) worked in their own home studio, with him doing 10 to 15 spots each day. Just an amazing catalog of consistently excellent stuff.
In a world without Don LaFontaine, movie trailers will never be as good as they once were.
LunaPierCook at 5:18AM on 09/03/08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJMGS7l0wT8
Rest in peace Don.
JerzeeTomato at 8:46AM on 09/03/08
What a pleasant surprise to see there was a post about this here...I do voiceover work and thought I was alone in my admiration for Mr LaFontaine. Cheers all around.
gastronomeg at 11:05AM on 09/03/08
@gastronomeg: I don't know quite when I became a "fan" of DLF, if "fan" is the right word. I think it was after catching a link to the YouTube clip of "5 Guys in a Limo," seeing that the guy behind the golden voice had a sense of humor about the clichés he spouted for the movies and commercials. After that, I couldn't watch trailers or commercials without picturing DLF behind the mic, smirking as he said "In a world where ..."
Obviously, Serious Eats is about food, first and foremost. But one of the things I like to do here on SE and its blogs is find some way to link seemingly non-food-related current events (or, in this case, a posthumous tribute) to food so that we can still mention it but within a food context. Maybe this commercial is stretching it a bit, but I *really* wanted to acknowledge DLF's death in some small way.
Btw, gastronmeg, I just clicked through to your SE profile page hoping I'd find a link to your own voiceover site. Do you have one? Or is it on the DL?
Adam Kuban at 4:25PM on 09/03/08