Quick -- who's the busiest professional actor in history?

Unless you're a real Hollywood insider you're not likely to get this one right. Chances are you wouldn't recognize him if you bumped into him on the street and most people don't even know him by name.

His voice -- on the other hand -- you've no doubt heard thousands of times. Don LaFontaine has the rare distinction of being influential yet invisible. The most popular voice in the world of movie trailers, LaFontaine has voiced approximately 3,500 trailers over the past 40 years, plus countless commercials and television promos, making him not just the most successful voice-over artist in the world, but the busiest actor in the history of the Screen Actors Guild. "Busiest actor" is not an official title, but at a Screen Actors Guild awards ceremony recently, LaFontaine explained, "Based on the number of contracts signed I must be the busiest actor in the history of SAG. I've had tens of thousands of SAG contracts. In the past, I'd have eight or more in a day."

After a life of anonymity, LaFontaine has found himself much more recognizable of late thanks to a popular GEICO commercial that has brought him into the public eye for the first time. This commercial is just the latest in a long string of successes for LaFontaine, who says, unsurprisingly, that the ad has given him an even higher profile in a business where those in the know have long acknowledged him as tops in his field.

Bankrate spoke to LaFontaine about his long career in the movie trailer industry, and how he handles his hard-earned wealth.

Bankrate: You actually started on the production end, creating trailers. Did you think you were going to be in production your whole life?

Don LaFontaine: I really didn't have any real direction in my head. I wasn't going about it like a lawyer or doctor does. I was letting fate carry me. I got into a course to become a recording engineer in a studio, and that led me to the Army band and to New York and to national recording studios. I had no solid plan except some vague notion of being involved in broadcasting.

Bankrate: Even back then, did you often hear, "Wow, you have a great voice?"

Don LaFontaine: Yeah, I've had a deep voice since I was 13. My mom had a deep voice and so did my dad.

Bankrate: How did your voice then compare to what it sounds like today?

Don LaFontaine: It was deep, but not as deep as it is now. Age will always change your voice, and the fact that I use it professionally all day long, and have for 25 years now, full time, and for 20 years before that part time. It's a muscle that has changed and developed by putting demands on it and changing different pitches, intonations, levels. It has expanded its reach and its range. It's much more flexible.