Elwood Edwards, Voice of AOL's 'You've Got Mail,' Dead at 74
Elwood Edwards, the iconic voice of AOL's "You’ve Got Mail" audio message, has died after a long illness.
His tombstone had better say “Goodbye.”
Imagine being such a legendary part of computing history just because you recorded a few voice lines for some upstart that sold internet access by the hour.
He didn't even work for the company, his wife did. She had him record the lines on a tape recorder in their livingroom. She sold it to the company for a few hundred dollars.
I can’t unhear that sound.
It hits a little different this time.
I hope he’s the kinda guy who would have that on his tombstone.
"Goodbye"
Imagine how he felt.
You have to think that line would be used humorously pretty frequently in his life. Like, every time he got the mail and brought it back in the house, he’d just whip it out and his kids would just go “daaaaad!!!”
I don’t know anything about him, but I hope he’s that guy.
My physical mail box makes this sound over all the speakers in my house.
RIP my guy. You'll live on whenever I get spam
My solar powered talking microwave mailbox does the same, but the Crank Yankers version.
It's solid state now, but originally was tape based.
That was so long ago now.
we had friends who had an African Grey that mimicked him perfectly every time she heard the modem sound...
Those birds are crazy. My dad and I painted our neighbor’s house one summer when I was a kid, and at the end of each day I’d call her name out and let her know the status. After we finished, her African Grey would call her name in my voice every day so well that she thought we were still there.
Ripppppp :(
Thank you for providing us with so many memories esp in the 90s/early 2000s!
Shit man, RIP.
It somehow absolutely did not occur to me that was a recorded voice.
I'm guessing I thought it was magic?
Wow what an icon. Rip.
No, he did the sound, not the icon.
You've got fail
(and my upvote for the dad-joke)
Groan
I've been using that sound bite as the notification sound when I get an email on my phone for years.
"File's done." Yes, Elwood, the file's finally done.
Wow so he was only in his thirties. I really tiny he sounded older.