Harold Douglas (born Harold Cohen; September 1, 1924 – March 7, 2014) was an American

voice actor Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

best known for performing thousands of voice-overs for

movie trailers A trailer (also known as a preview, coming attraction or attraction video) is a commercial advertisement, originally for a feature film that is going to be exhibited in the future at a movie theater/cinema. It is a product of creative and tech ...

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

s, and stage plays over the course of a six-decade career.Bernstein, Adam (March 12, 2014)
"Hal Douglas, famed voice-over artist, dies at 89"
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''.

Early life

Harold "Hal" Douglas was born Harold Cohen in Stamford, Connecticut, on September 1, 1924, the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Samuel and Miriam Levenson Cohen. Douglas and his brother Edwin were primarily raised by their grandparents Sarah and Tevya Levenson after their mother died when Douglas was only nine.Vitello, Paul (March 13, 2014)
"Hal Douglas, 89, Superstar of Movie Trailer Narrators, Dies"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. He served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, and attended the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

as a drama major.

Career

Douglas began a career in radio in the 1950s. By the 1960s, he had become a producer for several prominent advertising agencies in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He finally moved into doing

voice-overs Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...

for commercials, promos, and trailers by the early 1970s, and would continue doing so until his retirement in the late 2000s. 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 Donald Leroy LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008) was an American voice actor who recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers over four ...

claimed to have actually created the catchphrase.) In addition, Douglas has been the promotional voice for

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on terrestrial television, broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture be ...

, ABC, A&E, ''

Disney's Halloween Treat "Disney's Halloween Treat" is a 1982 Halloween-themed episode of '' Walt Disney'' which originally aired on October 30, 1982. Plot The episode is narrated by a jack-o'-lantern puppet (voiced by Hal Douglas) and features a compilation of Disney ...

'', '' A Disney Halloween'', Disney Channel's "Vault Disney" (1997–2002), and

The History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

. He did the voiceover narration for the 1997 Detroit Red Wings, the 1994 and 1995 Houston Rockets and the 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1997

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January ...

championship documentaries. He also did voiceover narrations of other NBA documentaries of the 1990s. Because he recorded so many trailers through the years, he was sometimes mistaken for

. He can be seen

parodying A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

himself in the trailer for '' Comedian'', a documentary that features Jerry Seinfeld. Douglas provided narration for the trailer for the novel ''All the Talk Is Dead'' by Michael Ebner. Unlike most movie trailer announcers, Douglas lived in

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is a widespread region radiating westward and southward from Washington, D.C. Wit ...

and his agent was based in

instead of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Hal Douglas was described by a Miramax publicist as "perhaps the most recognizable trailer voice in the business". Douglas's voice briefly appears in the skit '' 5 Men and a Limo'', featuring other notable voiceover recording artists, such as

, John Leader,

Nick Tate Nicholas John Tate (born 18 June 1942) is an Australian actor popularly known for his roles as pilot Alan Carter in the 1970s science fiction television series '' Space: 1999'', and James Hamilton in the 1980s Australian soap opera '' Sons an ...

, Al Chalk, and Mark Elliot. As the skit was filmed in California, and as Douglas was primarily based in the East Coast, he was unable to make a physical appearance, and only is heard in a brief recording.

Personal life and death

In 1988 Douglas moved from

Pawling, New York Pawling may refer to: *Pawling (town), New York, in Dutchess County ** Pawling (village), New York, in the town of Pawling *** Pawling (Metro-North station), train station for the village ** Pawling Nature Reserve, in the northern section of the ...

, to a 40-acre farm in

Lovettsville, Virginia Lovettsville is a town in Loudoun County, located near the very northern tip of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. Settled primarily by German immigrants, the town was originally established in 1836. The population was 1,613 at the 2010 ...

, where he pursued organic gardening and his wife took up competitive horse riding. He had a small recording studio built there that allowed him to do his work at home, sometimes in pajamas. Douglas died at his home on March 7, 2014, of pancreatic cancer, at the age of 89. Evanier, Mark (March 8, 2014)
"Hal Douglas, R.I.P."
News From Me.

References

External links

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Hal Douglas
a
Voice Chasers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Hal 1924 births 2014 deaths American male voice actors Radio and television announcers University of Miami alumni Male actors from Stamford, Connecticut Deaths from pancreatic cancer Deaths from cancer in Virginia Levites Jewish American military personnel People from Pawling, New York People from Lovettsville, Virginia 21st-century American Jews