Don LaFontaine has died

[Dan F]

Don LaFontaine, Hollywood's influential gravelly voice of movie trailers, dies

Don LaFontaine, the voiceover artist known to millions of filmgoers around the world for his gravelly tones, has died in Los Angeles. He was 68.

LaFontaine passed away from Pneumothorax, the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity which houses the lungs, in Cedars-Sinai hospial on Monday, his agent has confirmed.

Affectionately known as 'The King of Voiceovers', LaFontaine worked on almost 5,000 film trailers.

He also lent his voice to numerous U.S. TV shows including Entertainment Tonight and The Insider and thousands of advertisements.

His trailer catchphrase 'In a world where...' has long passed into cinematic folklore and has been much parodied.

LaFontaine, who has headlined the voiceover industry for 25 years, was also the in-show announcer for the Academy Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Born in Duluth, Minnesota, he began his career as a recording engineer before he became a voice actor in the mid-1960s.

He is survived by his wife Nina Whitaker and three children.

Link to Daily Mail article

[Miranda]

Oh no! Who's going to do the voiceovers now?

[emmasi]

I heard about that on the radio. I didn't know his name, and I'll probably forget it again, but that voice... that was something you don't forget. Sad to see him go

[Formerly Known as FKAJ]

In the trailer for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there's a Guide definnition of a movie trailer, claiming that the narrator will normally employ a deep voice that sounds like a seven-foot-tall man who has been smoking cigarettes since childhood, and sometimes use the phrase "In a world" - followed by clip of the Earth exploding - but sometimes not.

Now I know where that comes from.