- Hal Douglas
Hal Douglas (born 1924) is an American
voice actor best known for his work onmovie trailers andtelevision commercial s.Biography
Douglas was born in
Connecticut , served inWorld War II , and attended theUniversity of Miami ,Florida as a drama major. He began a career in radio in the 1950s. By the 1960s he had become a producer for several prominent advertising agencies inNew York City . He finally moved into doing voiceovers for commercials, promos and trailers by the early 1970s, and has continued in that line of work ever since.Because many of his trailers have begun with the words "In a world", there is controversy over whether his voice has immortalized them (
Don LaFontaine claimed to have actually created the catchphrase). In addition, Douglas has been the promotional voice for the former WB, A&E andThe History Channel . As of 2007, Douglas records promotional narrations for ABC along with theatrical trailers, but since the WB and UPN merger, he has not done voiceovers for their successor network, the CW. His voice can also be heard as the "trailer announcer" in the 2006 movie, "The Holiday". [http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/theholiday/]Because he has recorded so many trailers through the years, he has sometimes been mistaken for
Don LaFontaine . He can be seenparodying himself in the trailer forJerry Seinfeld 's film "Comedian."Unlike most movie trailer announcers, Douglas lives in Northern
Virginia and his agent is based inNew York City instead of Los Angeles. Hal Douglas has been described by aMiramax publicist as "perhaps the most recognizable trailer voice in the business."Radio
Hal also does voice imaging for I95.5 FM in Trinidad and Tobago.Fact|date=February 2007
5 Men And A Limo
Hal's voice briefly appears in the skit
5 Men and a Limo , featuring other notable voiceover recording artists, such as Don Lafontaine,John Leader ,Nick Tate ,Al Chalk and Mark Elliot.External links
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* [http://www.cedpromos.com/PromoTrailerAudio/Douglas,%20Hal-Promo.mp3 A promotional demonstration audio clip (MP3)]
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