BY: Walker
Published 23 seconds ago
Elwood Edwards, the voice of AOL’s iconic “You’ve Got Mail” greeting, has died at the age of 74.
Edwards passed away on November 5 after a long illness – just one day before his 75th birthday – his former employer, WKYC-TV Studios in Cleveland confirmed.
Edwards famously recorded a message which would become a staple of all early internet users in 1989 for the then-unknown America Online.
His greetings include ‘Welcome’, ‘You’ve got mail’, ‘File’s done’, and ‘Goodbye’, all recorded in his own living room on a cassette deck.
He was paid a mere $200 for his voiceover work – which would go down in internet history and be heard by millions of users as they logged in around the world.
He previously revealed he had recorded the message as a favor to his wife Karen, who worked at Quantum Computer Services, which became AOL.
In 1989, she overheard former CEO of America Online, Steve Case, discussing needing a voice for their new e-mail interface and she eagerly suggested her husband.
They liked Edwards’ tape so much that they made his voice the signature sound of its e-mail software in 1989.
Edwards later said AOL had compensated him since for his vocals, saying in 2017: ‘What I should have said was that I initially received $200, in the following years my relationship with AOL has been both satisfying and rewarding and I hope this clears up any misunderstanding.’
He worked at company 3 News for decades in graphics, as a camera operator and ‘jack of all trades’.
His AOL message saw him shoot to worldwide fame – he appeared in a 2000 episode of The Simpsons, Little Big Mom, playing a virtual doctor and on a 2015 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
He also appeared in advertising for the 1998 film, You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
In later years he worked as an Uber driver in Cleveland, where passengers were left delighted when he revealed his famous voice.
In October 2022, Edwards appeared in a television ad for the platform Shopify, in which he announced ‘You’ve got sales’ to sellers.
Edwards said in a 2019 podcast appearance on Silent Giants with Corey Cambridge that he ‘had no idea it would become what it did, I don’t think anybody did,
‘Suddenly, AOL took off… I remember standing in line at CompUSA and seeing (stacks of AOL CDs) and thinking, “my voice is on every one of those, and nobody has a clue.”’
Edwards was born New Bern, North Carolina and began his career in radio in high school.
He said: ‘I didn’t enjoy being on camera as much as I enjoyed being behind the scenes.’
via: Daily Mail
