Voiceover Master Don LaFontaine dies at the age of 68

[Miriel]

LaFontaine, known as the "King of Voiceovers," died Monday afternoon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. LaFontaine's agent, Vanessa Gilbert, tells ET that he passed away following complications from Pneumothorax, the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity, the result of a collapsed lung. The official cause of death has not yet been released.

Over the past 25 years, LaFontaine cemented his position as the "King of Voiceovers." Aside from being the preeminent voice in the movie trailer industry, Don also worked as the voice of Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, as well as for CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and UPN, in addition to TNT, TBS and the Cartoon Network. By conservative estimates, he voiced hundreds of thousands of television and radio spots, including commercials for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Budweiser, McDonalds, Coke, and many other corporate sponsors.

He recently parodied himself on a series of national television commercials for Geico. At last count, he has worked on nearly 5000 films, including appearances as the in-show announcer for the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards. Based on contracts signed, he has the distinction of being perhaps the single busiest actor in the history of SAG. Don is survived by his wife -- singer/actress Nita Whitaker, and three children: Christine, Skye and Elyse.

His voice was like a familiar old friend. Totally gonna miss him in all the new movie trailers and TV previews.

[Vyk]

Oh no I liked him. And his voice

[Momiji]

Aww, that sucks. Movie trailers will never hold the same appeal again.

[Yar]

I liked him as the voice for FOX. It made the network minutely respectable.

[Vermachtnis]

Aww, trailers just won't be trailers anymore without him. Like the guy in the video said, his voice is unique.

[Roto13]

Am I a bad person for finding his work incredibly annoying? >_> He became a cliche.

Sucks that he died, though. He seemed like a really cool guy in that video.

[Vyk]

He was a cliche. But I don't watch much TV. So from my perspective he stopped doing the over dramatic voice overs and most of the time I heard his voice after that tended to be toward more comedic things. And I liked him about that. Though I don't like that his voice made [stupid] Movie movies sound more credible/humorous than they ever actually are. Not his fault the movies suck though. I just like how he presented stuff these past few years

[Ouch!]

Maybe you'll feel better with proof that he was able to make fun of himself for very much the same reason, Roto.

This is a major bummer.

[Miriel]

Of course he became cliched. And people spoofed his voice all the time.

But I still found his voice comforting. Everytime is over-dramatic voice would come on it's like, "hey! It's the announcer guy!" I thought he was great.

Here's his Geico commercial where he was kinda spoofing himself:

YouTube - Don LaFontaine GEICO Spot

[Big D]

A good man, and an iconic part of Hollywood lore...
It's possible we might even see a change in the overall style of big-budget film trailers from here on.

But that's all secondary to the fact that a well-known and respected man has died far too young, and will be missed.

[DMKA]

When I first heard about his death I was like "wait, who?" then I found out and was like "oh, hmm ".

[Boney King]

The end of an era.

[Bunny]

I will never see another film so long as I live.

[Madame Adequate]

What the hell is Hollywood going to do now? You can't have movies without trailers and you can't have trailers with LaFontaine's voice.

[Bunny]

He didn't do every single movie trailer.