Part three of the Cape May Pictures Post Trilogy is coming soon…I moved into the Philly campus on Saturday, and have been spending all my time settling in and starting classes and stuff, so adding sardonic comments to pictures of the beach hasn’t been my top priority.

This post isn’t about Philly, however, it’s about one man: Don LaFontaine.

Not everybody knew his name–although most of us film geeks did–but everyone knew his voice. You were sitting in the theater, the car and cell phone commercials were over, the lights went dim, the cinema rules clip ended, the green “following PREVIEW has been approved for ALL AUDIENCES” screen flashed…and he spoke.

“In a WORLD…ONE MAN…Rated R! In theaters everywhere this Christmas!”

His voice has been emulated and parodied countless times…he wasn’t the only one with his talent (Hal Douglas is another whose voice you’d definitely recognize), but he was one of the best, if not the very best. And, while I never had the pleasure of meeting him, by all accounts he was extremely down-to-earth and friendly.

The news of LaFontaine’s death the other day made me sadder than the deaths of most people who are actually IN movies. There will be plenty more to fill his shoes, but perhaps none will make the same impact on the film trailer as we know it as he did.

In his memory, let’s all take a moment and watch the classic “Five Men In A Limo”, featuring LaFontaine and a few of his fellow voice artists (including a brief vocal cameo by Douglas).