'That Announcer Guy From the Movies' wins fame

There was a moment at one of those Hollywood awards shows recently that seemed finally to cement Don LaFontaine's place in television and film history, sort of like a star on the Walk of Fame, only not. He walked over to introduce himself to Ian McShane, star of the HBO drama "Deadwood." But before LaFontaine could open his mouth, McShane smiled, dropped his voice to a timbre that seemed a cross between Darth Vader and Dirty Harry, and intoned: "IN A WORLD É .

" This is big, reaaally big -- not because it showed that LaFontaine's trademark movie-trailer catchphrase, as in "In a world where ...

violence rules." No, it's because LaFontaine -- "That Announcer Guy From the Movies" -- hadn't uttered a word. "The Voice" had not spoken.

This is especially telling, considering the cliche so commonly used in describing LaFontaine: "You may not know his face, but you certainly know his voice." Chances are you do, too -- now. Think Geico commercial.

The bald guy with sandy mustache and headphones standing in the kitchen of a "real Geico

customer" and orating, "In a world where both of our cars were totally under water É ." LaFontaine has worked in Hollywood for decades, reached the top of his craft, earned plenty and won accolades. And yet, as he might say himself: In a world where exposure is everything, putting a face to the voice behind 5,000 movie trailers can give a guy a whole new perspective.

Suddenly this fixture of show business -- one of its hardest-working, though obscure, artists -- became something else: a kind of celebrity. At first, even the Geico advertising folks didn't have a clue who he was when they were brainstorming "The Testimonial Campaign," a series of spots featuring real customers and B-listers such as Little Richard and Charo. "Somebody blurts out, 'Hey, what about that movie announcer guy?

' The other one goes, 'Well, what's his name? What does he look like? Who is that guy?

' That's how it all started," explains Dean Jarrett of The Martin Agency. Now, post-Geico, it's different. There are autograph requests.

Comments on the streets of Las Vegas. Q Where in the world did "In a world" come from? Q Some voice-over artists avoid onions or milk because they affect the quality of their voice.

Any special protective measures for LaFontaine's voice? A "I protect it by not abusing it. I try to avoid black coffee too much, because it'll put some stuff on your throat.

" A ""'The Elephant Man' (released in 1980) is certainly one of my top five trailers. It is, by far, the most unusual also. I wrote the script for the trailer based upon the feature script, and it was approved by the film's producer, Jonathan Sanger, before a foot of film was shot.

We made one cut of the trailer. No revisions. It went directly to finish.

See the trailer at http://tinyurl.