August 26, 1940: birth of Duluth voice actor Don LaFontaine

On this day in Duluth in 1940, Don LaFontaine, aka “The Voice of God,” was born to Alfred J. and Ruby V. LaFontaine of 2711 West Second Street. A 1958 graduate of Central High, LaFontaine was active in choir, graphic arts, the Photography Club, the Public Speaking Club, and the Press Club. In his senior year, he and classmate Arlene Galbur were voted “Wittiest.” He spent time working in radio in New York City before moving to Los Angeles in 1982, where he found work as a voiceover actor for movie trailers. Over the years, LaFontaine worked on about 5,000 movie trailers, including Ghostbusters (1984), The Terminator (1984), Field of Dreams (1989), and Home Alone (1990), and voiced nearly 350,000 television and radio spots and performed in a few movies (usually as an unseen announcer), including 1988’s Scrooged with Bill Murray and as a fictional FOX announcer on the animated Seth McFarlane series Family Guy and American Dad. He died on September 1, 2008, at the age of 68, in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Discover more about LaFontaine here.

Don LaFontaine. (Image: Duluth Public Library)