Author Topic: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68  (Read 782 times)

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The Fake Shemp

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"In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« on: September 02, 2008, 11:11:05 AM »
(CNN) -- Don LaFontaine, the voiceover king whose "In a world ..." phrase on movie trailers was much copied -- and much parodied -- has died, according to media reports. He was 68.

LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, according to ETOnline, "Entertainment Tonight's" Web site. He died from complications from pneumothorax, a collapsed lung that causes air to build in the pleural cavity, his agent, Vanessa Gilbert, told "ET."

LaFontaine, who was born in Duluth, Minnesota, began as a voice actor in the mid-1960s while working as a recording engineer, according to his Web site. His strong, slightly gravelly voice was featured on trailers for thousands of films, including "The Godfather," "Fatal Attraction" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." For a time in the late '70s, LaFontaine was the official voice of Paramount Pictures.

His favorite work was one he did for the 1980 film "The Elephant Man," he said in interviews.

He also provided the voice for hundreds of commercials for companies such as General Motors, Ford, McDonald's, Coca-Cola and many others, according to his Web site.

The good-humored LaFontaine was willing to poke fun at himself, particularly in a recent ad for Geico insurance, in which he gave dramatic flair to a woman's story about her car accident. He also voiced the trailer for "The Simpsons Movie," in which his descriptions were mimicked by commentary from the film's characters.

But LaFontaine was most famous for his phrase "In a world ...," used by seemingly dozens of movies determined to create an otherworldly atmosphere.

LaFontaine told CNN that the scripts gave him the cues for his delivery.

"They dictate how they want to be read," he told "Showbiz Tonight" in 2005. "It's pretty much straightforward stuff because you know the context of the film generally going in. If it's something like 'King Kong,' you have a pretty good idea of how you`re going to say it. It's going to be a big adventure thing. And I let the strip more or less guide what I'm going to say."

He added that there was no secret to his movie trailer work: "I really think this is one of the few industries where everything is right up there," he told CNN. "What you see is what you get."

Still, he noted, it's not like he could use his movie-trailer voice everywhere.

"If I tried to use that voice in public," he said, "they'd be calling security."

 :'(

Trailers will never be the same.
PSP

Brehvolution

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Re: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2008, 11:13:44 AM »
 :'(
*Pours some OE on the ground*
©ZH

The Fake Shemp

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Re: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2008, 11:15:36 AM »
I always loved how he'd deliver the line: "He/she was a [enter character description here] and he/she was [the opposite of whatever the first character was]."
PSP

Tauntaun

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Re: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2008, 11:15:37 AM »
"In a world where the greatest voiceover actor has passed away, is there any who can fill his shoes?"  Winter 2008.
:)

Crushed

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Re: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2008, 11:24:53 AM »
Now he's with God.


Competing to see who has the more commanding voice.
wtc

MrAngryFace

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Re: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2008, 11:27:21 AM »
Man, thats like, the end of an era.
o_0

Yeti

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Re: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2008, 12:21:25 PM »
What are we going to get for voice overs now? A sound-alike or something completely different.
WDW

muckhole

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Re: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2008, 12:27:33 PM »
There must be only two or three of these guys that Hollywood uses on a regular basis. Big shoes to fill.

When I'm watching some low-budget straight to dvd flicks, the trailers for other junk will have these "newer" people doing the reads, and it's jarring. You just expect trailers to have that certain voice to them.
fek

Bloodwake

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Re: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2008, 12:48:30 PM »
This sucks

 :( :( :(
HLR

Bacon

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Re: "In a world..." voiceover king, Don LaFontaine, passes away at 68
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2008, 01:08:29 PM »
I guess God needed another voiceover guy.