You may not recognize the name Elwood Edwards, but if you were online in the ’90s, you probably heard his voice every day: he was the voice of AOL’s iconic greeting messages, most famously “You’ve got mail.”
Sadly, Edwards passed away at 74 — but his voice will live in our heads forever.
Edwards’ death was confirmed by his former employer, WKYC-TV Studios in Cleveland. He reportedly died of a long but unspecified illness.
Edwards mainly worked at the TV station as a graphics and video editor, among other jobs, but by chance landed the most famous voice acting gig of the ’90s. His wife worked for Q-Link, the service that would later become AOL, and overheard that they were looking for a voice for their new ISP service.
Edwards recorded the famous phrases — “Welcome,” “You’ve got mail,” “File’s done,” “Goodbye” — at home using a tape deck, and was paid just $200 for the job. Later, AOL would become ubiquitous in American homes, and it dawned on Edwards that he was suddenly the voice of the early internet age.
“I had no idea it would become what it did, I don’t think anybody did,” Edwards said in a 2019 podcast interview. “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.’”
For millions of people, AOL was their gateway to the internet: it was the dominant ISP of the ’90s, making things like email an everyday norm. Edwards’ voice provided a warm friendliness to the technology as it became a major part of their lives, and “you’ve got mail!” became an iconic catchphrase — even inspiring the title of a Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan rom-com about a pair of online penpals.
For decades after, many people would recognize Edwards’ voice, even if they didn’t know him by face. “Every time someone would come to visit at WKYC, he’d introduce himself and they’d recognize him,” recalled senior broadcast director at WKYC Frank Macek, per CNN. “There was such an association between his voice and AOL for such a long period of time that he became an instant celebrity as a result.”
While he initially only got paid $200 for the gig, it seems Edwards was better compensated later on: he told Today that he had a “good relationship with AOL.”
AOL peaked in 2001 but quickly lost popularity as broadband internet became the norm. While most people are no longer greeted by Edwards’ welcoming voice (though AOL is still around, and still uses the now-35-year-old recordings) it will forever be a nostalgic memory for many of us who grew up in the ’90s.
And even decades later, people were still recognizing Edwards’ voice: a woman in Ohio realized that Edwards was her Uber driver, and he even did the “you’ve got mail!” voice for a video.
Several other companies hired Edwards as a voice actor for their commercials, usually parodying the AOL greetings. He also made cameos on TV shows like The Simpsons. In 2015, he made an appearance on Jimmy Fallon, reading off some funny phrases in his iconic voice.
Rest in peace to Elwood Edwards, whose voice will live in our hearts forever. Please share this story ❤️✉️
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