Elwood Edwards, the voice behind AOL's "You've Got Mail," passes away at 74.
His voice is still heard on AOL to this day.
Elwood Edwards, known for being the voice of the famous "You've Got Mail" greeting from AOL, passed away at the age of 74 after battling a serious illness. The news was reported by a local news station in Ohio, where he worked for many years.
In an interview conducted in 2016, Edwards shared details about how he became the voice of AOL. His wife, who was part of Quantum Computer Services (the company that later adopted the name AOL), learned that they were looking for a voice for their software and decided to offer her husband's voice. Edwards, who had been a broadcaster throughout his career, accepted the proposal.
In 1989, he recorded the famous phrase, along with others like "Welcome," "Files done," and "Goodbye," on a cassette tape for the sum of $200. Initially, it was just a test to gauge its acceptance, but surprisingly, in the mid-1990s, its popularity skyrocketed.
AOL still offers the option to hear "You've Got Mail," a nostalgic reminder of an early internet era. Personally, as an AOL user, I confess I was unaware that behind that iconic voice was a real person; I always thought it was a computer-generated audio. Even today, Edwards's voice will remain in my inbox, continually reminding me with its message: "You've Got Mail."