People

On the Voiceover Universe, updates have been posted both yesterday and today …

OFFICIAL UPDATES FROM DON’S BEST FRIEND OF OVER 30 yrs, Paul Pape

August 27, 2008 – UPDATE 2:12 PM PST (5:12 PM EST)

He’s doing good…continuing to stabilize and improve slowly but
surely. Lots of reason to be optimistic. It’s really good to see him
making progress.

August 26, 2008 – UPDATE 5:24 PM PST (8:24 PM EST)

To all of Don’s friends in the Voice-over Community:

Don’s condition continues to stabilize. There is significant progress
and while he has quite a ways to go yet, there is every reason to keep
the faith. Many of you have expressed your feelings and chosen to
respect the privacy that Don and his family need right now. One could
ask no more of you. This show of respect is deeply appreciated by
those closest to the situation. Don and I often remark that we are
more brothers at this point than just best friends. Yet, as your
outpouring of support shows, Don has many “best friends.” He is
clearly important to us all .

Don’s wife, Nita, read every single comment that has been posted and
was truly touched and strengthened by your words and prayers. Please
see Nita’s response below. As for me, please accept a simple “thanks”
for being there for my ol’ pal.

Sincerely,

Paul Pape

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To all of you beautiful voice angels,

I am overflowing with gratitude for the responses you’ve sent on
behalf of Don and our family. I read each of your comments and tears
of joy fell with each sentence, prayer and good wish. It’s so easy to
live your life in pursuit of your dreams and not realize how you are
affecting others in a positive way; that in some way by living your
dreams you inspire others to pursue theirs. I am so honored to have
you all praying and rooting for us during this time. Don is a
warrior, larger than life, but in all this he is always slightly
amused that you find him some sort of “guru”. He never gets used to
that and lives his life with a kindness, humility, and dignity of a
“small town boy who done good”. Your kindness overwhelms me and fills
me with great peace. My husband is a great man to me not just because
of his work and the trail he’s blazed in your business, but because he
is so generous of spirit, a terrific husband and father, and the love
of my life. Thank you for being in our village of believers and
pray-ers as Don works his way back to the mic! I’ll be sure he knows
of your kindness.

Peace and blessings,

Nita
Wife of Don

I’m very glad to read these excellent updates, and continue to pray for complete and swift restoration.

Stephanie has an in depth interview with voice actor Josh Keaton on Vox Daily.

My friend Dave Courvoisier has posted a couple of notes with the latest about Don. I hope you’ll keep praying. I am.

Karen Commins, one of my voiceover friends in Atlanta, writes about the connection in her life between playing the harp and voiceover work. Very much worth the moments it will take to read.

This was posted earlier today on the Voiceover Universe by Paul Pape, one of Don’s best friends …

To All Don’s Friends In The Voice-over community:

First, I want to thank you on behalf of Don’s friends and family for your outpouring of support and your prayers. For those of you that don’t know, Don is continuing to try and recover from successful treatments for an illness that he had. He has been looking forward to getting back to his regular schedule. Sometimes the treatments can be harsh and the after effects can create problems even after the initial illness itself has been beaten. These after effects are what Don is currently experiencing and they are causing problems for him. He has had a rough few days but he is currently stable and showing signs of progress with each passing hour.

Don is, for the time being at least, in the Intensive Care Unit. As a result, calls and visits are severely restricted. Flowers also cannot be sent as they are not allowed in ICUs. However, your prayers are needed and your continued good positive thoughts and wishes. Outside of that, the best thing we can all do right now is give Don and his family the space they need to get him back on his feet, which there is every reason to believe will happen. Your cooperation in this aspect would be greatly appreciated. As one of his oldest friends, I promise to bring you updates as often as I can, so that you are not left wondering.

Thanks for your understanding.

Sincerely,

Paul Pape

I would just add, please continue to pray for Don’s complete recovery. Thank you.

Deb Monro emailed this out just a few minutes ago. She in turn received it from Julie Williams. What follows is from Don LaFontaine.

Update from Don
I thought it was about time that I brought everybody up to speed with what’s been happening in my world.

You haven’t been hearing a lot from me lately, and that’s because I have been fairly seriously ill for the last several months.

In order to give you the complete picture, I need to go back over some material of which many of you are already aware, but this thing needs to be seen in its full context.

Last fall, I began to notice that I was having trouble catching my breath during exercise. Subsequent tests revealed a suspicious growth on my lymph nodes and left lung. This required an exploratory surgery called a Media Stenoscopy, which was performed At Cedars Sinai Hospital in late November of ’07. The biopsy ultimately proved negative for any tumor, but there was a spot on the lung that still needed to be checked. Unfortunately, sometime during the operation, one of my lungs was nicked, and I developed Pneumothorax, which basically means that the lung collapsed, releasing all the air into my upper body, causing a condition called Subcutaneous Emphysema – Which blew me up like a balloon from the ribs up to my eyebrows. This happened three times over the next six days. The “cure” for this condition is to place chest tubes and small catheters under the skin to drain off the excess air.

Unfortunately, all that air also accumulated around my vocal cords, causing me to sound like an ambassador from Munchkinland. This condition, I was told, could last for a number of weeks.

We decided to put off a Bronchoscopy to determine the status of the spot on my lung until after the new year, by which time, my breathing had become even more labored.

Again, the test failed to reveal anything more than a few “suspicious” cells – but no cancer. I had also scheduled, months before, a standard Colonoscopy, which I had in January. This revealed a growth on my colon.

Are we having fun, yet?

So – I go back to Cedars to discuss laparoscopic surgery to get rid of that growth, after first undergoing CAT and PET scans. During my consultation with the surgeon, my Oncologist came in with another doctor to tell me that I had a tumor growing under my lung and threatening to encircle my Aortic Valve to my heart.

Suddenly, the surgery was put on hold, and I was scheduled for thirty-seven sessions of intense radiation and four sessions of Chemotherapy, which stretched over the next seven weeks. This included four blood transfusions.

During this time, the effects of the Subcutaneous Emphysema had worn off, and I was able to work again.

After treatment, I was told that it was completely successful, and the growth had been completely eradicated! I was also told that the radiation therapy would continue to work in my system for a number of weeks.

Well, it did.

In rare cases – like mine – it spreads into the lungs and causes a very persistent condition called radiation pnuemonitis. This reduces the lungs capacity to about a quarter, making it almost impossible to walk ten paces without having to stop for air.

The treatment for this condition is massive doses of steroids, which balloons the face and body, and it also settles on the vocal cords in a major way, creating a good deal of gravel and hoarseness. In short – it has brought my career to a near stand-still.

Steroids can also have a major effect on one’s heart rate, and blood sugar count – each of which sent me back to Cedars on two separate occasions for four and three day stays within a week of each other. Because of the blood sugar influence, I now have a temporary form of diabetes, and need to take insulin.

This condition will pass as soon as I get the pnuemonitis under control, but it’s a balancing act between doses of steroids and insulin.

As I mentioned earlier, this lung thing is incredibly resistant, and to this date, I am still looking for some improvement.

I do work from time to time, but my voice is nowhere close to where I need it to be. Fortunately, I have incredibly faithful friends and clients who have shown me what loyalty really means by working with me, even in my diminished capacity.

I am now recovering from the recovery. When this is cleared up, I still am facing the laparoscopic stomach surgery, but that will be a cakewalk.

But the real point of all this is the Genisis of the condition. I was a smoker, on and off, for thirty years. I quit nearly twenty years ago, but that crap has a tendency to lie doggo in your system. It finally caught up with me, and as you’ve just read – it ain’t pretty. For those of you who are in the Voice Over business, and you think that smoking is adding some wonderful quality to your instrument – WAKE UP! Quit! Today! Whoever you are – if you smoke – Stop! All you are adding is garbage to your vocal cords, and a nice deep layer of tar and poison on the linings of your lungs.

I tell you all this, because I need to clear the air, because there has been a lot of speculation out there, and because it should serve as a cautionary tale. Even though the growth on my lungs has been erased, there are still a few miles to go before I’m back to 100%.

But that, I can assure you – is going to happen!

-Don

I’m praying for you Don. God bless you.

Beau Weaver provides you with a totally free Movie Trailer ring tone for your iPhone, Blackeberry or smartphone. Thank you, Beau. Very cool.

My thanks to my friend Jeff Stitt for posting the link to this on the VO-BB. Jeff also posts a link to a bit of background information about Beau’s cool new ring tone.

With thanks to Russ Renshaw and his VoiceOverture site for posting the link, this is a video interview with Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario for Nintendo since Super Mario 64.

My friend Caryn Clark has a very nice write-up in the Sebring (FL) News Sun about her voiceover work and specifically her role as the voice of five Hannah Montana television commercials.

My friend Adam Creighton moved from Austin, TX to Durham, NC some months ago. He offers some very candid and pointed insights into how this has affected his acting and voice acting career in a Point of View article published a few days ago on Showfax.

What I think is pretty cool is that The Actors Voice – POV (the point of view site) is overseen by casting director Bonnie Gillespie. I’m not positive, but I think I might have played a small role in helping to introduce Adam to Bonnie a couple of years ago. Regardless, of whether that’s the case or not, I just love seeing how the lives of people I know intersect like this.

Here’s another example, I met Anna Vocino as a result of studying in 2007 with Nancy Wolfson. (Anna and Nancy jointly run the Break Into Voice Over site.) I first connected with Bonnie Gillespie because I responded to one of her superb The Actors Voice columns. She not only responded to my comments, but even linked to this blog from there. So, I was truly delighted when I was at dinner with Nancy, Anna and several of our mutual friends a year ago and discovered during our conversation that Anna and Bonnie are also good friends with one another.

In any case, back to Adam and his column, I think that term “desperate creativity” is spot on. Everyone who works in a creative field knows what it’s like living through a season where things aren’t clicking. No one wants to live there, but once we get through those times we have the benefit of being able to look back and see just how much we learned from the experience. May this be such a time for you, Adam.

Pat Fraley’s web site has just been updated and it looks simply fabulous. My friend Deirdre Williams (known professionally as DB Cooper) is the site designer. And while you’re there, don’t miss the wonderful free lessons Pat provides.

If you enjoy cruising and voiceover, Deb Munro wants you to know that you have an opportunity to combine your passions next year if you take part in VO Cruise 2009.

Doug at RadioCreativeLand has recorded and posted an interview with me.

The other day I mentioned my friend Anthony Mendez and his site focused on horror voice work. My friend Dick Terhune has a similar site with a slightly different twist on things.

My friend Ralph Hass emails today with news about some of his latest professional voice work in the world of professional sports. Ralph is far more of a sports fan than I, so it’s a natural fit for him to do this kind of work.

Congratulations on the work, Ralph. May there be many more.

Voice talent Pamela Lewis is interviewed in the Ann Arbor News. My thanks to my friend Liz de Nesnera for posting the link to this article on the VO-BB.

Update: My friend Joe Rodriguez adds this bit of information that might be of interest if you live in or near New York City. Pamela is teaching a 2 day “Talking Funny for Money” workshop this weekend, August 23rd and 24th. Details are at TalkingFunnyForMoney.com