Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Great Voice, Don LaFontaine

Our movie trailers will never sound the same again.

Voiceover legend Don LaFontaine has died due to complications from pneumothorax. He was 68. He is the genuine and godly voice behind 700,000 television spots and over 5,000 movie trailers.

His most famous work includes doing voiceover spots for films like "The Godfather," "Fatal Attraction" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." In the late 1970s, he was the official voice of Paramount Pictures. He also did projects for commercials like General Motors, Ford, McDonald's, Coca-Cola among hundreds of thousands of others.

LaFontaine once said, "My philosophy is that you have to really believe what you're reading, even if you think the film's a piece of junk. Even the worst picture is someone's favorite film, and that someone is the fan I am always talking to."

But what Don LaFontaine was most famous for was his trademark phrase "In a world ...," apparently used by many movies whose objective was to create an otherworldly atmosphere.

Here's Don LaFontaine's story told by none other than the legend himself.

No comments: