The voice that people of a certain age heard every time they logged on to AOL to find that they had new email is gone. Elwood Edwards, who was paid $200 to record the iconic "You've got mail" line along with three others for America Online, died Tuesday, the day before his 75th birthday. Edwards was mourned by , the Cleveland TV station where he worked for many years as, per the station, a "graphics guru, camera operator, and general jack-of-all-trades.
" His wife worked for AOL's predecessor, which is how he found himself with the opportunity to record the messages for the then-unknown online service provider—which, of course, went on to become much bigger, causing millions of people to know Edwards' voice, reports. The other messages he recorded in 1989 were "Welcome," "goodbye," and "files done." Edwards became a bit of a celebrity thanks to his familiar voice, appearing on the in 2015.
In 2016, he revealed that he recorded the messages on a cassette deck at his house, and that he never received any residuals, reports. But he also said, in a different interview, that he maintained a good relationship with the internet company. (He also once .
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