The man who would announce, “You’ve got mail” has died. Elwood Edwards was 74 years old.
Edwards, according to this daughter, died at his New Bern, North Carolina, home from complications of a stroke he suffered last year, The Associated Press reported.
In addition to the “You’ve got mail” greeting, which he recorded into a tape recorder in his living room in 1989, Edwards also voiced “Welcome,” “Goodbye,” and “File’s done.”
Despite being the voice of a generation of early email users, he only earned $200.
He had been working at an independent television station in Washington, D.C. when his wife at the time was a customer service rep for the company that would become AOL. When she heard the company needed a voice, she suggested Edwards.
He called himself a “man of mystery” until America Online disclosed who he was.
“It started off as a test, just to see if it would catch on,” Edwards told Great Big Story in 2016. “At one point they said my voice was heard more than 35 million times a day.”
Edwards lent his voice to an episode of “The Simpsons” and a Shopify commercial, The New York Times reported. He also was a clue on “Jeopardy!” and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”
Edwards leaves behind two daughters, a granddaughter and his brother.
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