Don LaFontaine 1940 - 2008

Let me first say that Don and I were not friends in the “hey everybody, look who I know..” kind of way. I refer to Don LaFontaine as a friend of mine because of the way we conversed in emails to one another, the way we saw eye-to-eye on a few topics, and the way he treated me like a professional and a man even though I amounted to little more than a fly on his ass.

Don LaFontaine was my friend because he didn’t judge me as a fan, he didn’t judge me as a star struck idol. In fact, he didn’t seem to judge me at all. He seemed to simply respect me as a man with an opinion, and a guy who enjoyed the craft of voice over and the creative process that went with it.

Don and I were not buddies, we did not golf with one another. In fact, we had never physically met. We had only talked back and forth via email for a while, a time that amounts to a gnats life in the swath of his great career. Simply said, I was just a fan, and he, an idol of mine… Now I am faced with the disemboweling reality of one of the greatest pioneers of my chosen profession, and one of the greatest idols I have ever had no longer sitting at the helm, and it saddens me in a way that I am at a loss for words for when it comes to describing.

At around 10:30 this evening I walked into the house and told my wife I was going out for a while. I told her what had happened and she gasped and put her hands over her mouth and said, “Oh My God!”.

She knew that Don was in trouble, and she knew that pain would be my new best friend on this evening.

I went up to the local cantina and ordered two beers, one for myself and one for my friend. His beer sat there, untouched as it should be. I asked another friend how I should honor the person - or maybe honor the beer. He said, “Just drink some and pour the rest away.” Which is what I did. I drank a few big sips of his beer. A few big sips I wish it was him taking, and then I had the rest poured away. The bartender was nice enough to ask me how I wanted it poured and where it should be poured. I made him pour it in the drain he had just gotten done cleaning…. He didn’t complain.

When I sit and think about it I realize there is no way to honor this man with a beer. There is no way to make up the loss to his family. There is no way to make up the loss to the world…

I wasn’t trying to make up for any of that. I was just trying to have one last beer with my buddy.

Peace be with you great one of the airwaves. I can only wish to accomplish a fraction of what you did. Thank you for being my friend when very few others would. Thank you for treating my adoration with dignity. Thank you for showing me how I should want to be should I ever find myself in the shoes you wore. You are still and will forever be the one and only reason I ever got into and stayed this business in the first place. You gave me something to dream about.

I love you Don…. I don’t know how I’ll ever stop crying…

You can read the only interview I conducted with him here:

The first part of that question, “What is voice over training?” has come up for me from time to time in the past. I know I’ve tried to explain many of the aspects of training, or the methods used while coaching voice over, but I don’t know if I, or anyone else for that matter, have been able to sum up in an article on the internet what type of training “voice over training” really is.

There are so many links and options available on the internet that promise to lead to information about voice over that it can be rather confusing for anyone looking to get started in the business. Many of those links lead to financial or marketing dead ends, where the reader is told or begins to realize that if they want to know any more they are going to have to join a mailing list or pay someone money to find out. I have never believed in that model nor do I practice it.

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Now I must admit that not all of those hours were spent hammer in hand - but it was a very long Sunday. The weekends are pretty much dead at the moment so they’re a great time to get this stuff out of the way. All we have to do is complete one more layer of drywall on the outside and begin the application of the acoustic foam on the inside and this voice over isolation booth is ready for the big leagues… The lighting and electric are in - the second door should go on today - and we’re ready for some videos… So stay tuned. We’ll get a complete video up as soon as it is done..

I was a little boy when Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno took to the screen as the “Modern Man who Turns Green” combo in 1978. I was certainly a little boy by today’s standards, considering men at the age of 24 are regularly referred to as kids in many mediums of entertainment and sports, even if they are old enough to go get their asses blown off in the deserts of the Middle East.

I was, at that age, able to easily identify with the plight of both the man and the beast in The Incredible Hulk. I somehow, even lacking any real life experience, understood the situation Dr. David Banner was in; having to walk through life possessing a secretive anger and rage and carry that burden until he found an answer for his problems. I was able to understand the sorrow and loneliness of the Hulk, a misunderstood and dangerous character capable of unimaginable destruction, but gentle in a Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein sort of way.
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The new forum is up and just waiting for some posts.. Come on in and check it out.. (It’s still a work in progress - but we can open the doors to it. We just don’t have a lot of places to sit..

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