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Legendary movie trailer narrator Hal Douglas dies at 89

A man whose voice is seared into the memories of moviegoers has passed away. Hal Douglas, the gravelly-baritone voice featured in countless film trailers from the 1980s to the 2000s, died on March 7 at the age of 89.

Though you may not have known his name, Douglas was a superstar voice talent and one of the top narrators in all of Hollywood. From “Lethal Weapon” and “Philadelphia,” to “Forrest Gump,” “Con Air,” “Men in Black,” and even “Meet the Parents,” Douglas’s voice introduced audiences to dozens and dozens of now classic movies. His bassy tones and expert delivery could make even the worst movie sound like it was worth seeing, as was the case with the trailer for 1993’s “Coneheads.”

Despite his grim-sounding voice, Douglas was able to poke fun at his overly serious profession in the trailer for the 2002 documentary “Comedian” (embedded above), expending about every movie trailer cliché known to man in the silly minute and a half promo. The film's trailer is almost more famous than the documentary, which was not a big hit.

The deep-voiced Douglas was often confused with fellow trailer narrator Don “In a world...” LaFontaine, who passed away in 2008. Because both had recorded many trailer voice-overs featuring the oft-used "In a world..." trailer intro, there was some dispute over which actor had coined the phrase. LaFontaine claimed to have created it until his death.

If you needed your movie trailer imbued with some serious gravitas, Douglas and LaFontaine were the two best in the business. The two appeared together (or at least their voices did) in the hilarious 1997 short film “5 Men in a Limo” (embedded below), along with other famous trailer narrators John Leader, Al Chalk, Mark Elliot, and Nick Tate.

Although trailer narration (particularly by a deep-voiced narrator like Douglas or LaFontaine) is now seen by many as a bit of a cliché, the death of Hal Douglas marks the end of an era. There's now one less great movie voice out there.