I am sad to say that we are now in a world where Don LaFontaine, the well-known movie trailer voiceover guy, is no longer living.
Don LaFontaine, the man who popularized the now loved-catch phrase, “in a world where…” and lent his voice to thousands of movie trailers, has died. He was 68.
LaFontaine died Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from complications in the treatment of an ongoing illness, said Vanessa Gilbert, his agent.
LaFontaine made more than 5,000 trailers in his 33-year career while working for the top studios and television networks.
In a rare on-screen appearance in 2006, he parodied himself on a series of national television commercials for a car insurance company where he played himself telling a customer, “In a world where both of our cars were totally under water …”
In an interview last year, LaFontaine explained the strategy behind the phrase.
“We have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting them to,” he said of his viewers. “That’s very easily done by saying, ‘In a world where … violence rules.’ ‘In a world where … men are slaves and women are the conquerors.’ You very rapidly set the scene.”
You can get a feel for the LaFontaine style from this episode of “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” in which he played their “Not My Job” game. Rest in peace, Don LaFontaine.
Thank you for posting that. I listen to podcasts of “Wait…Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” several times a week on the subway. (I’m almost out. I only have 14 episodes left of what I was able to find as podcasts. Yikes!) I hadn’t heard that one. It’s awesome.
The neat part about it is that I saw an interview with him the other day in which he said that if people e-mailed him and said, “Will you record my voicemail greeting?” he almost always said yes. He loved the opportunity to do something fun and creative that made someone else happy. Damn, I wish I’d known that while he was alive.
I haven’t been to a single voiceover seminar or class where his name doesn’t come up. Peter Segal is not exaggerating when he calls him the “god of the voiceover world”. It’s true.