From AOL To Uber: The Remarkable Life Journey Of Elwood Edwards

Man behind iconic AOL phrase "You've got mail" has died.

He's a voice everyone around the the Hudson Valley and all of New York once heard for a period of time in the 90's. All of America for that matter. When you signed on to America Online, you'd hear that distinctive voice with that phrase, "you've got mail" after taking several minutes to login with Dial-up.

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Elwood Edwards was an American voice actor and radio host. He was best known as the voice of the Internet service provider America Online. In 1989, Quantum Computer Services, which would later be known as AOL, was looking for a voice actor to help with the alerts of its new software. Edwards' wife was working there at the time, which is how Edwards heard about the opportunity.

He recorded the lines: "Welcome", "You've got mail", "You've got pictures", "You've got voicemail", "File's done", and "Goodbye", all recorded in his own living room on a cassette deck for $200. Outside of his AOL fame, Edwards spent nearly five decades in television, working at WKYC-TV in Cleveland as a graphics and camera operator. He retired in 2014.

Edwards was born in Glen Burnie, Maryland. He was raised in Beaufort, North Carolina. In his later years, he worked as an Uber driver in Ohio.

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He appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in 2015 to repeat the famous catchphrase, smiling broadly and chuckling as the studio audience cheered. He also voiced a character in an epsode of The Simpsons in 2000. See video of The Tonight Show appearance below.

Edwards died on November 5, 2024 in New Bern, North Carolina from problems caused by a stroke one day before his 75th birthday. Rest easy good sir, "Goodbye".