Elwood Edwards, Voice of AOL’s ‘You’ve Got Mail,’ Dies At 74
Elwood Edwards, the voice of AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail” greeting, has died at age 74 following a long illness, according to local Ohio news station WKYC. “He worked at 3News for many years as graphics guru, camera operator, and general jack-of-all-trades, yet it was a somewhat random opportunity in 1989 that earned him international fame.” From the report: That year, Elwood received $200 from the then-unknown America Online, merely because his wife worked at a predecessor company. He was asked to simply record four voiceover lines:
– “Welcome”
– “You’ve Got Mail”
– “Files done”
– “Goodbye”
Of course, the company better known as AOL blew up, and millions around the world would hear Elwood’s voice telling them “You’ve Got Mail” every time they logged on to the internet. Despite his face not being visible, Elwood still achieved minor celebrity status. In 2015, he even appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” to utter the famous greeting as well as other audience-suggested phrases.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Elwood Edwards, the voice of AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail” greeting, has died at age 74 following a long illness, according to local Ohio news station WKYC. “He worked at 3News for many years as graphics guru, camera operator, and general jack-of-all-trades, yet it was a somewhat random opportunity in 1989 that earned him international fame.” From the report: That year, Elwood received $200 from the then-unknown America Online, merely because his wife worked at a predecessor company. He was asked to simply record four voiceover lines:
– “Welcome”
– “You’ve Got Mail”
– “Files done”
– “Goodbye”
Of course, the company better known as AOL blew up, and millions around the world would hear Elwood’s voice telling them “You’ve Got Mail” every time they logged on to the internet. Despite his face not being visible, Elwood still achieved minor celebrity status. In 2015, he even appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” to utter the famous greeting as well as other audience-suggested phrases.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.