Bankrate: At what point did you realize you were earning on a superstar level?

Don LaFontaine: It was about 15 years ago when I started cracking some pretty big numbers. It's been a gradual process. I never think of it as the superstar level. I'm always slightly amazed at the attention I receive, because I just think of myself as a lucky working actor who's doing his job the best he can, and circumstances have put me in the right place at the right time.

Bankrate: What type of investments do you prefer?

Don LaFontaine: I'm more or less partial to the safe, conservative things. The primary idea my wife and I talked about was to make sure we had a nice nest egg when I finally did decide to walk away, and make sure that our two daughters' college education is taken care of. Then when I shuffle off this mortal coil everything else is taken care of. So we've been pretty conservative about how we've placed the money. There's some in money markets, a certain amount in stocks. It depends on what our advisers say, and that changes from time to time. We move it around a bit based on their advice and our own common sense. We're not risk takers.

Bankrate: Have there been any stocks over the years that have done especially well for you?

Don LaFontaine: I don't know. I hate to sound so casual about this, but it really is not an area of major interest to me. What interests me right now is that I know I have a certain amount of money, that I'm liquid to a certain amount, and that if the bottom fell out I'd have a cushion to fall back on. That was the directive I gave to the people who handle the money. Over the next few years I want to accumulate a certain amount of dough, and so far they're on track with that.

Bankrate: Were there any periods of your life where investments went awry?

Don LaFontaine: Oh, yeah. I had an accountant when I first came to Los Angeles who later became a well-known crook. He mismanaged a lot of stuff. I learned very rapidly from that to be very careful with whom and where I trust my money. That was a real dangerous thing, because it put us in something like a three-quarter of a million dollar hole that I had to dig myself out of. He was basically stealing, and saying he was doing something that he wasn't doing, saying he was paying taxes. I trusted him and signed the forms, but they weren't sent in. This was 15 years ago.