General

I mentioned the other day that my friend Rowell Gormon had landed the part of Uncle Sam in an online animation. Now, Rowell, as you can see in this press release, has also generated a bit of additional publicity for his work. Good for you, Rowell. May there be many more.

And in case you’d like to see the animation in question, check out Rowell’s blog.

Bill Melendez is most famous, at least at our house, for his work on the Peanuts animations. Head over to Cartoon Brew for a great tribute.

According to this press release, my friend and veteran voice actor, Bryan Cox has been hired to work with Sounddogs.com. Good for you, Bryan.

My friend Kitzie Stern and I both study with voiceover coach Marice Tobias. As I’ve posted here several times (and as has Kitzie on her blog) it’s an amazing experience studying with Marice, but she only takes working professionals as students.

Recently, Kitzie has decided to take her voiceover blog in a new direction. You can read about what she’s thinking, comment, and subscribe to her blog’s feed as you like at Kitzie’s Voice.

My friend Rowell Gormon features some really excellent voice work that he’s done for a web animation on his blog. You don’t want to miss this.

My friend Steve Stone emailed me a few minutes ago with a link to this video from the CNN site.

You get to see Don working in multiple studios and then chatting for a few minutes in his famous limo. Excellent stuff.

As you might imagine, there are tributes to Don LaFontaine springing up all over the blogosphere. For example, I received an invitation today (as you probably did too) from Voice123.com to submit an audio clip in tribute to him. There’s a post on the Voice123.com blog with details if you’d like to participate, too. And Carmen Texeira emails that the site with the audio tributes is now live.

Voices.com’s Vox Daily has a moving tribute post with dozens of comments.

Dan O’Day has a unique and entertaining video on his blog that features Don, his wife and daughters and his best friend Paul Pape.

Dave Courvoisier asks for a moment of silence on his blog.

Brian Haymond posts about a recent email exchange with Don.

Liz de Nesnera writes about the collision in her worlds on her blog, and of meeting both Don and his wife on separate occasions in the last year and a half.

Dave Christi remembers his own long-distance encounter with Don.

Kara Edwards includes a photo of her meeting Don at VOICE 2007 in Las Vegas as well as memories of that special moment in time.

Juan offers a memory of a recording session with Don that he sat in on over at his Some Audio Guy blog.

Joe Rodriguez pays tribute to Don and includes a YouTube video on his blog.

Stewart Wilson-Turner offers condolences to Don’s family at VoiceBank’s VoiceRegistry blog.

Russ Renshaw says good-bye on his VoiceOverture blog.

Peter O’Connell also has some words of farewell and blessing on his blog.

Updated to add, The VO-BB is officially in mourning. Voice123.com has also changed their logo to black.

There’s more here at Mahalo.com.

I’ve posted the link to the Voiceover Universe tribute page previously, but for the sake of completeness add it here, too.

And VoiceOverXtra remembers Don.

Further update: Don’t miss Michael Minetree’s moving tribute to Don on his blog. And Michael has created a special tribute section on his VO forum as well.

Additional update: With thanks to Kristy Sproul and her Voice Chasers forum for the links, you’ll find an obituary on CNN.com, A story in the Washington Post, AFTRA President Roberta Reardon remembers Don LaFontaine on the AFTRA site and SAG’s Alan Rosenberg issued a statement published on the SAG site.

Another update: My friend Joe Szymanski blogs about things he learned from Don.

Updating again: Sandy Weaver Carman asks “How will you miss Don? on her blog. And Frank Murphy remembers a live radio broadcast featuring Don on KLOS.

Another update: Peter O’Connell posted in the comments below, but I’m adding it here for the sake of completeness, you’ll find a heart-felt message on the LA Fishbowl from Media Bistro today.

And another: This video is now featured on Voiceover Universe.Find more videos like this on voiceover universe presents…

Also on the Voiceover Universe site is this tribute page to Don. Thank you, again, Rick Party for all you’ve done to bring the voiceover universe closer together.

Adding today: The UK newspaper The Independent has a page of Don LaFontaine’s greatest hits. (Note, not all the movie trailer voices featured on this page are actually Don.)

Yet another update: Voiceover Times has a wonderful write-up on Don that’s well worth a few minutes of your time.

And another: The Los Angeles Times published an article remembering Don a couple of days ago. It included this video from the Associated Press.

My thanks to John Florian and his VoiceOverXtra site for the link to the LA Times article.

And another update: Matt Anthony’s blog post in tribute to Don was written over a week ago, but I only discovered it today.

Don’t miss this one: Just today ran across the wonderful comments by Randy Thomas that are posted on the Voicebank Blog. And Melanie Haynes has some very nice comments on her blog, too.

With thanks to my friends Dan Nachtrab and Joe Szymanski, there’s a wonderful feature audio piece about Don LaFontaine, and about voice acting in general, on Paul Butler’s blog.

Tom Kane has given me permission to reprint this tribute to Don LaFontaine that he wrote yesterday. My thanks to my friend Don Miller for passing it along to me in the first place.

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You may not have known him.

But you knew him.

Don LaFontaine passed away today.

He was a father, a husband, and – last on the list, I assure you – a voiceover legend.

20 years ago, I was voicing promos at NBC, trying to deal with the emotions of sitting in a chair that was still warm from Don LaFontaine and Townsend Coleman… and trying not to embarrass myself while “The Don” was waiting patiently for me to finish…

…for me to do in five takes what he could have done in one.

Then, after he sat down and completely blew me away, he invited me to go to lunch with him… in the fabled limo.

I tried hard to hide the fact that I was walking away from my beat up “K-Car” toward his signature transpo… If he noticed, he didn’t comment.

What he did say, was that he thought I might actually make a go of it as voiceover guy.

And like a very small number of us so blessed, I did.

Over the years, we became friends. And as only a tiny handful of us in the entire world can claim, we became competitors.

But as Andy, Dave, Jonathon, Ashton, George, Beau, Al, Scott and the rest all know, while we may have shared the field with him, there was never any real competition.

From the days when – as a Writer and Producer – he literally created the modern concept of the Movie Trailer – to when he single-handedly voiced over half the Trailers in the entire industry AND squeezed in Promos for half a dozen Networks, he was in every aspect, “The Don”… Our Patriarch.

My Favorite Don story was when I was hired to do the trailers for “Tombstone”.

As happened about ten times a day back then, the studios said “We need to use someone else… Don is on EVERYTHING!”

So they had me do the entire campaign… Until the reviews started coming out… and they were not good.

The cry went out from the boardroom, “Get Don LaFontaine!”

Imagine that…

A gazillion dollar movie… with huge stars… a big director… with an advertising budget bigger than it took to make “Star Wars”… But MAYBE, just maybe, if Don LaFontaine did the trailers… it might actually save the movie.

Don did the trailers until Siskel and Ebert’s review panned it, then they went back to me to save a few bucks…

Because if Don couldn’t save it, it didn’t matter who voiced the rest.

We laughed about it over lunch a few weeks later. He shook his his head in wonder at how – in his own words – “I guess I’ve become some sort of talisman.”

Don was exactly that, for all of us.

A Talisman.

Of what what we could dream of being someday…

…and what we all knew – and know to this very minute – we will never equal.

He was, quite simply, the best that will ever be.

‘Nita… girls…

We cannot know the full hurt of your loss.
But know that he touched our lives as well.
And we will miss him greatly.

-Tom Kane

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Thank you, Tom. Our prayers for Nita and the girls continue.

I’m sure over the next few days, as news of the death of Don LaFontaine spreads far and wide, there will be many folks posting comments and memories of Don. He was truly larger than life, not just a great talent, but as I got to see first hand in my one direct encounter with him, a wonderfully generous and kind human being.

My only in-person encounter with Don was at the first VOICE conference in Las Vegas in March of 2007. Don came and spoke to us one event and when his comments were finished, there were quite a few of us who lined up to ask him a question. Long before the everyone got to the microphone to ask their question, it came time to bring the evening’s activities to an end.

But Don agreed to stay, shake hands with and get photographed with everyone who wanted to get a picture with him. In a snap, all 200 plus in attendance were lined up. It took a long time, but Don stayed and greeting and was photographed with everyone who took the time to stand in line. Even though it was the end of a very long day for him. Even though everyone would have understood if he’d begged off. From those who knew him best, and from those I’ve known personally who’ve worked with him, I’ve heard exactly the same things again and again; so I know the generous spirit he showed to all of us was no fluke.

If you have a story about Don, comments are open. Share it here. I’d love to see it. I’m sure others would, too.

This is my one and only time meeting Don, at VOICE in Las Vegas, March 2007.

Update: There is a message from Don’s best friend of 30 years, Paul Pape, at Voiceover Universe.

You’ll find an interesting story on VoiceOverXtra about the journey Pat Fraley took through the process of re-designing his web site with the assistance of DB Cooper and her husband DeWitt Hardy. It’s well worth a few minutes of your time. And when you’re done, click through to Pat Fraley‘s site to see the finished product.