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With one of the most famous voices in America and his trademark greeting, "Hello and Welcome to Moviefone!", Russ Leatherman, a.k.a. "Mr. Moviefone", has become a pop culture icon and, like popcorn and raisinets, is a regular staple of the moviegoing experience.
Through the popular Moviefone telephone service (e.g., 777-FILM), its online counterpart, Moviefone.com, and mainstream broadcast media, Russ reaches millions of moviegoers each week. Russ brings his unique take on movie reviews to CNN, CNN Headline News, ABC-TV, CBS' CBS Mornings (1954), Fox News Channel, MSNBC, the nationally-syndicated The Daily Buzz (2002) morning show, and a number of top radio stations nationwide, including Z-100 FM in New York, KRTH-FM in Los Angeles and the nationally syndicated Westwood One, USA Radio Network and ABC Radio Network.
Russ has appeared on national talk shows, such as Late Show with David Letterman (1993), The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986), The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003), The Howard Stern Show (1990), The Caroline Rhea Show (2002) and others. He has also been profiled in the pages of Time Magazine, People, Entertainment Weekly, Life, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and many more. His inimitable "Hello and Welcome to Moviefone!" greeting has been affectionately parodied on dozens of programs, including The Simpsons (1989), Saturday Night Live (1975), Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993), the 2005 Academy Awards, VH1's I Love the '90s: Part Deux (2005), and was even the subject of the classic Seinfeld (1989) episode, The Pool Guy (1995).
Leatherman is widely recognized as the voice of the moviegoing public and an authority on the tastes and habits of today's moviegoers. Using Moviefone's services to gauge which films are receiving the strongest moviegoer interest, Leatherman is on top of the latest moviegoing trends. He has offered his insights to a wide variety of media, from Entertainment Tonight (1981) and Access Hollywood (1996) to MSNBC and The Fox News Channel.
Russ co-founded Moviefone in 1989 and, along with his partners, established the overall management of the company and many of the company's relationships with industry partners. Moviefone was purchased by AOL in 1999 and has continued to increase in usage, year after year.
