Our 7 favorite celebrity insurance spokespeople

John Travolta

Before he was a hip-swiveling greaser or a smooth talking hit man, John Travolta aired in a weepy life insurance commercial for Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. Travolta’s character says this about his father, “He had it all planned. There was only one thing he didn’t plan; he didn’t plan on dying.” The commercial ends with Travolta staring morosely out the window of the restaurant he must now work at instead of going to college; the voiceover states, “As painful as it might be for your family to go on without you it would be even more painful for them to go on without anything.”

Buddy Valastro, also known as the “Cake Boss,” was a 2012 spokesperson for the LIFE foundation. In a video advocating for life insurance, the Cake Boss tells a tearjerker about how his father, who did not have life insurance, passed away when Valastro was still in high school. After dropping out of high school, the cake boss in training took over his father’s bakery, working over 12 hours a day. He ends the commercial on a positive note, explaining the importance of life insurance and how beneficial it could have been if his father had ownedt it.

Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton, the Olympic gold medalist figure skater, hosted “Skating on Thin Financial Ice,” a life insurance awareness month event sponsored by the LIFE Foundation. Hamilton told the heartbreaking story of his mother’s struggle with cancer. He explained that after she passed away he would have had to quit skating if it wasn’t for an anonymous donor. “It’s sad to think that the college plans of so many children would be threatened if they lost their parents,” said Hamilton. “It makes me appreciate the security that my own life insurance protection provides my family. I was lucky, and I got to pursue my dreams even when it seemed I would never be able to afford to. But I don’t rely on luck with my own family’s financial security and neither should any mom or dad.”

Fred Thompson

Outspoken former Republican senator, lawyer and actor, Fred Thompson is a representative for the American Advisors Group. Playing to patriotic sentiment and tough economic times, Thompson encouraged people over the age of 62 to consider a reverse mortgage. The former Law and Order actor continues his late-night campaign to educate seniors across the country about how to turn their home equity into tax free cash.

See also:

• 6 celebrities who made unfortunate life insurance decisions
• 4 TV characters who could have used DI
• 5 great cinematic funeral scenes