Elwood Edwards, who voiced AOL’s “You’ve got mail” greeting, has died, aged 74.
Edwards died on Tuesday at his home in New Bern, North Carolina, his daughter Heather said. The cause was complications from a stroke late last year, she added.
Edwards taped his AOL greetingon a recorder while sitting in the living room of his home in 1989. “You’ve got mail” became a catchphrase in the late 1990s and served as the title of the 1998 film starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
“He would still blush any time someone brought it up,” his daughter said. “He loved the attention, but he never got used to it.”
He was also the voice of AOL’s “Welcome”, “Goodbye” and “File’s done” messages. He made $200 from the recordings.
Edwards got the gig while working at an independent television station in Washington DC. His second wife, Karen, was a customer service representative for the internet provider that later became known as AOL. She heard the company was looking for someone to be the voice of its software and suggested her husband.
Heather Edwards said: “They were so impressed, they didn’t have him go in a recording booth.”
While few people knew Edwards’ face, his voice was heard by millions of people every day. “For a while, America Online [AOL] was keeping it a secret, making me a man of mystery. But finally it was released, and there you go,” Edwards said in 1999.
He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2015 to repeat the catchphrase, smiling broadly and chuckling as the studio audience cheered. He also added his voice to an episode of The Simpsons in 2000.
Edwards first worked in radio and then moved into television. He had a brief stint as a weather presenter and worked as an announcer, but mostly he spent his time behind the camera, Heather Edwards said.
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“He would say: ‘I have a face for radio,’” she said, adding that her father “always had a ready smile any time you’d see him”.
He later worked at WKYC-TV in Cleveland as a “graphics guru, camera operator, and general jack of all trades”, the station said. Edwards also did freelance voiceover work for radio and television commercials.
He is survived by another daughter, Sallie, a granddaughter, Abbie, and his brother, Bill.
The family plans to hold a memorial service on Monday in New Bern.
