{"id":2904,"date":"2008-09-02T22:16:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-02T22:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/in-a-world-where-that-voice-is-silenced.html"},"modified":"2008-09-02T22:16:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-02T22:16:00","slug":"in-a-world-where-that-voice-is-silenced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/in-a-world-where-that-voice-is-silenced.html","title":{"rendered":"In a world where that voice is silenced…"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sad but true: one of the most famous voices in the world is no more.<\/div>\n

From the AP<\/a>: <\/p>\n

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 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from complications in the treatment of an ongoing illness, said Vanessa Gilbert, his agent.<\/p>\n

LaFontaine made more than 5,000 trailers in his 33-year career while working for the top studios and television networks.<\/p>\n

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…”<\/p>\n

In an interview last year, LaFontaine explained the strategy behind the phrase.<\/p>\n

”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.”<\/p>\n

LaFontaine insisted he never cared that no one knew his name or his face, though everyone knew his voice.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can see one of his rare on camera appearances below, in that great GEICO commercial:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

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Sad but true: one of the most famous voices in the world is no more. From the AP: 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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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}