Don LaFontaine, the gravelly-voiced announcer on thousands of movie trailers from The Godfather to The Simpsons, has died in Los Angeles aged 68.

LaFontaine died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles from complications caused by a collapsed lung, ETOnline reported.

According to his website, LaFontaine started doing voiceover work in the mid-1960s and went on to produce more than 5,000 movie trailers and nearly 350,000 commercials.

Most famous for the movie trailer introductory line, "In a world..." LaFontaine's other work included The Elephant Man, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Chicken Run, the 79th Academy Awards and the TV hit Family Guy.

LaFontaine is survived by his wife - singer and actress Nita Whitaker, and three children.

Fellow voiceover artist Ashton Smith gave one of the best descriptions of LaFontaine's talent: "When you die and go to heaven the voice you hear is not Don's," he said. "It's God trying to sound like Don."