Miley Cyrus

Will a alternator that is going bad do "this" to a car?

So I was driving my 2000 Toyota Camry, and the radio was on. Then the radio suddenly goes off and at the same time the engine sound goes mute. So I look at the rpm meter and it’s dropped all the way to zero, and the car slowly decelerates to a complete stop. (Don’t worry, I steered the car to the side lane away from traffic). I tried to put the emergency light on, and even that won’t even turn on. I tried to restart the car by taking the key out and putting it back in, but to no avail the car won’t start.

So after 5 minutes, and right before I call the tow truck, I open up the hood, give some good punches to the engine top in my frustration.
Then got in the car and once more tried again, and fortunately the car turned on fine, as it usually did.

In the period of 10 years of having this car (with constant service every 10,000 miles) this is the first time that this happened.

The engine wasn’t overheating because I remember the temperature gauge was in the cool range when I was driving it before it stalled, and there wasn’t any smoke, and the fuel was 3/4 of the way full.

So anybody have any idea as to what would cause this?
(I don’t want the car to go dead again while travelling in a highway)