09-02-2008, 09:51 AM
(CNN) -- Don LaFontaine, the voice-over 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, and the trailer for "The Simpsons Movie," in which his description was meant with 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."
LaFontaine is survived by his wife, actress and singer Nita Whitaker, and three children, Christine, Skye and Elyse.
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, and the trailer for "The Simpsons Movie," in which his description was meant with 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."
LaFontaine is survived by his wife, actress and singer Nita Whitaker, and three children, Christine, Skye and Elyse.
Will it blend? That is the question.
