quote AP

By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 49 minutes ago

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.
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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."

LaFontaine insisted he never cared that no one knew his name or his face, though everyone knew his voice.

LaFontaine went on to work in the promo industry in the early 1960s. As an audio engineer, he produced radio spots for movies with producer Floyd Peterson.

When an announcer didn't show up for a recording session in 1965, LaFontaine voiced his first narration, a promo for the film, "Gunfighters of Casa Grande." The client, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, liked his performance.

LaFontaine remained active until recently, averaging seven to 10 voiceover sessions a day. He worked from a home studio his wife nicknamed "The Hole," where his fax machine delivered scripts.

LaFontaine is survived by his wife, the singer and actress Nita Whitaker, and three daughters.

His funeral arrangements were pending.

quote Wikipedia

LaFontaine was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California with a blood clot in his lungs on August 22, 2008, and was reported as being in critical condition the following Tuesday. His family made a public appeal on the Mediabistro.com site.[4] LaFontaine died September 2, 2008 following complications from pneumothorax.[5]

quote Wikipedia

Donald LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 2, 2008) was an American voice actor famous for recording over 5,000 movie trailers, television commercials, network promotions, and video game trailers. His signature voice was perceived as being both ominous and sonorous. Due to the sheer volume of trailer voiceovers LaFontaine recorded, he became identified with the phrase "in a world...", which has been used in movie trailers so frequently that it has become a cliché. He also parodied this cliché several times, most recently in a commercial for GEICO insurance.

LaFontaine stated that his favorite work in a movie trailer was for the hit biographical film The Elephant Man.[1]

Born in New Ulm, Minnesota, he began his career as a recording engineer at the National Recording Studios, where he had the opportunity to work with Floyd Peterson producing promo spots for Dr. Strangelove. Peterson incorporated many of LaFontaine’s ideas for the spots, and not long after, they went into business together. While working on the 1964 western Gunfighters of Casa Grande, LaFontaine had to fill in for an unavailable voice actor to finish a client’s presentation. Not long after, the client bought the spots, and LaFontaine’s career as a voice actor had been sealed. Prior and into the 1970s, LaFontaine developed his signature style of a strong narrative approach, and heavy melodramatic coloration of his voice work.

LaFontaine’s signature voice commanded a busy schedule. He is said to have voiced about 60 promotions a week, and sometimes as many as 35 in a single day. It has been said that his voice-over added prestige and excitement to what might otherwise have been a "snoozer" movie. Most studios were willing to pay a high fee for his service, thanks in no small part to his rigorous efforts and golden voice. His income was reportedly in the millions.[3]

Famous for being driven to voice-over jobs in a personalized limo with a full time driver, so as not to waste time parking and going from job to job, he began recording many promotions from his own palatial estate in the Hollywood Hills, saving the time from traveling to many high-profile recording studios. This was due to the advent of ISDN technology that allows voice-actors to communicate with high clarity in real time to studios around the world, and to the Internet where a file can be recorded and e-mailed to a studio within seconds.

Similar voice actors Ashton Smith, Hal Douglas, and Peter Cullen have all been categorized as being a close copy to the style of LaFontaine, and are sometimes confused with LaFontaine.