NOTEWORTHY DEATH : The voice saying, ‘In a world where ... ’
Posted on Thursday, September 4, 2008
LOS ANGELES — Don LaFontaine, the man who popularized the catch phrase “In a world where...” and lent his voice to thousands of movie trailers, has died. He was 68.
LaFontaine died Monday of complications from treatment of an illness, said Vanessa Gilbert, his agent.
He made more than 5, 000 trailers in his 33-year career while working for the top studios and television networks.
In a rare screen appearance in 2006, he parodied himself in national television commercials for Geico, a car insurance company, in which he played himself telling a customer, “In a world where both of our cars were totally underwater...”
In an interview last year, La-Fontaine 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.”
LaFontaine said he never cared that no one knew his name or his face, though everyone knew his voice.
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