Don LaFontaine, better known to most people as “that movie trailer voiceover guy”, unfortunately passed away this past Monday.  Having narrated hundreds of thousands of trailers and TV spots in his career, LaFontaine is easily recognized by his gravelly voice and signature opening, “In a world..” 

From his official biography:

Over the past 25 years, LaFontaine cemented his position as the “King of Voice-overs.” Aside from his continuing work in the trailer industry, he has also been the voice of NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and UPN, in addition to TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network. By conservative estimates, he has voiced hundreds of thousands of television and radio spots, including commercials for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Budweiser, McDonald’s, Coke, and many other corporate sponsors. At last count, he has worked on nearly 5000 films, including appearances as the in-show announcer for the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards. Based on contracts signed, he has the distinction of being perhaps the single busiest actor in the history of SAG.

In addition to trailers and commercials, LaFontaine did voice work for Family Guy and American Dad, and he also narrated the videogame Medal of Honor: Rising Sun.

Fellow voiceover artist Ashton Smith once said, “When you die, the voice you hear in heaven is not Don’s. It’s God trying to sound like Don.” When rereading that quote earlier this week, Smith said “I guess God is going to lose that gig when Don gets up there because Don is just that good.”

In a world without Don LaFontaine, movie trailers are less capable of being awesome. You will be missed, Don.

Source: The Associated Press

Tags: Don LaFontaine, In a world..., movie trailer, narrator, voice, voiceover

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3 Comments » naia on September 5, 2008 10:02 am It’s such sad news. I don’t know who could replace a guy like him. greeneggsnsam on September 5, 2008 10:42 am Watch this: http://lafontainesafety.ytmnd.com/ then this: http://hardsafety.ytmnd.com/ A fitting tribute. :( :) Abaddon on September 7, 2008 4:02 pm Whoops.RIP.Gave me a lot of thrill & fun. RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.