NOTEWORTHY DEATHS

LITTLE ROCK — The voice saying, 'In a world where ...'

LOS ANGELES -

Don LaFontaine, the man who popularized the catch phrase "In a world where..." and lent his voice tothousands of movie trailers, has died. He was 68.

LaFontaine died Monday of complications from treatment of an illness, said Vanessa Gilbert, his agent.

He made morethan 5,000 trailers in his 33-year career while working for the top studios and television networks.

In a rare screen appearance in 2006, he parodied himself in national television commercials for Geico, a car insurance company, in which he played himself telling a customer, "In a world where both of our cars were totally underwater ..."

In an interview last year, La-Fontaine explained the strategy behind the phrase.

"We have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting them to," he said of his viewers. "That's very easily done by saying, 'In a world where ... violence rules.' 'In a world where ... men are slaves and women are the conquerors.' You very rapidly set the scene."

LaFontaine said he never cared that no one knew his name or his face, though everyone knew his voice.

Grammy winner, good-old-boy actorTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Jerry Reed, a Grammy Award-winning singer who became a good- old-boy actor in car chase movies such asSmokey and the Bandit, has died Monday of complications from emphysema, his longtime booking agent said. He was 71.

As a singer in the 1970s and early 1980s, Reed had a string of hits including"Amos Moses," "When You're Hot, You're Hot," "East Bound and Down," "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)" and "The Bird."

In the mid-70s, he began actingin such movies as Smokey and the Bandit with Burt Reynolds, usually as a good old boy. But he was an ornery heavy in Gator, directed by Reynolds, and a hateful coach in 1998's The Waterboy, starring Adam Sandler.

Elvis Presley recorded two of his songs, "U.S. Male" and "Guitar Man" in 1968. Reed also wrote "A Thing Called Love," recorded in 1972 by Johnny Cash.

Reed was voted instrumentalist of the year in 1970 by the Country Music Association.

He won a Grammy Award for "When You're Hot, You're Hot" in 1971.

A year earlier he shared a Grammy with Chet Atkins for their collaboration, Me and Jerry. In 1992, Atkins and Reed won a Grammy for Sneakin' Around.