The Voice of Movie Trailers

on September 11th, 2008

Don LaFontaine, whose job I’ve always secretly coveted, sadly passed away this week. Here’s a clip from The LA Times:

Don LaFontaine, the highly sought-after voice-over artist whose sonorous-voiced narration on several thousand movie trailers earned him the title of “The Trailer King,” has died. He was 68.

LaFontaine, who also did voice-over work on countless radio and network television promotional spots and commercials, died Monday of complications after treatment for an illness at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his family said. The illness was not specified.

LaFontaine’s famously melodramatic movie-trailer voice — he was most often identified with the introductory phrase, “In a world . . .” — was ripe for parody and spurred sendups from Pablo Francisco and other comedians.

JG

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Ryan at 9:21am September 11

Don LaFontaine, often imitated, never duplicated. Movie previews will never be the same again. He could make even the worst looking movie sound awesome just by the voice overs he did.