--- description: You may not recognize his face, but you undoubtedly know his voice title: The Voice of Hal Douglas — A Late, Great Movie-Trailer Master image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [remembrance](/tag/remembrance/) ## remembrance Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Video: The Voice of Hal Douglas — A Late, Great Movie-Trailer Master  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 13, 2014 4:31 PM CUT  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Mar 13, 2014 4:31 PM CUT You may not recognize his face, but you undoubtedly know his voice. Hal Douglas was the artist behind many of the phrases — “In a world…” and “One man…” — that brought gravitas to decades of movie trailers. The [New York _Times_ reports](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/movies/hal-douglas-89-superstar-of-movie-trailer-narrators-dies.html?hpw&rref=movies&%5Fr=0 "undefined") this morning that Douglas died on Friday at the age of 89, due to complications of pancreatic cancer. As [Linda Holmes notes over at NPR](http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2014/03/13/289779418/hal-douglas-the-voice-of-many-many-movie-trailers-dies-at-89 "undefined"), the gravel-voiced narration style of trailer no longer has a monopoly on the world of movie advertisements — but voices like Douglas’ still spring to mind as a classic sound of the cinema. And Douglas himself was part of the longevity of the format: he worked until just a few years ago, adding trailers for movies like _Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs_ to a resume that also included _Waterworld_ and _Forrest Gump_. Check out his demo reel, above, and it’ll be easy to see and hear why his voice endured so long. (**MORE**:[ Women Want Work Doing Movie-Trailer Voiceovers](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/08/12/vocal-opposition-women-want-work-doing-movie-trailer-voiceovers/ "undefined")) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/23261/hal-douglas-rip-voiceover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/23261/hal-douglas-rip-voiceover/"},"headline":"Video: The Voice of Hal Douglas — A Late, Great Movie-Trailer Master","datePublished":"2014-03-13T16:31:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:45:12.501Z","description":"His voice brought movie trailers to life","url":"https://time.com/23261/hal-douglas-rip-voiceover/","keywords":["remembrance","obituary","Trailers"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/23261/hal-douglas-rip-voiceover/","name":"Video: The Voice of Hal Douglas — A Late, Great Movie-Trailer Master"}}]}] ```