Voice of AOL’s ‘You’ve got mail!’ dead at 74

After a furious series of blaring dial-up screams and aggressive sprays of static, his congenial voice was like a balm.

When all the commotion subsided, it could be exhilarating — you finally made a

You were online.

The bright (human) voice was the next thing you'd hear, the sure sign you'd made it.

"Welcome, you've got mail !"

Elwood Edwards , the voice of the AOL greeting, has died.

Edwards, who also worked at WKYC Studios' 3News in Cleveland, was 74 when he died Nov. 5, a day before his 75th birthday, the station reports.

Its report describes him as a "graphics guru, camera operator, and general jack-of-all-trades," but for all of those who used America Online to access the internet in the '90s and beyond, he was also a kind of guide to a new realm.

As Edwards explained in a video for AOL, his wife Karen had worked for Quantum Computer Services, the precursor to AOL.

She had overhead Steve Case , who became CEO of AOL, talking about adding a voice to the company's software in 1989.

"She volunteered my voice, and on a cassette deck in my living room, I recorded the phrases that you've come to know," Edwards said.

It started as just a voice test, but his voice became voice of AOL, used for "welcome," "you've got mail," "files done," and, of course, "goodbye."

" You've Got Mail " even became the title of a hit 1998 romantic comedy directed by Nora Ephron , starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks .

Ryan's character, Kathleen Kelly, has an AOL email account where she corresponds as "Shopgirl" with Hanks' character, Joe Fox — "NY152′′ — after connecting in a chatroom.

In 2015, Jimmy Fallon hosted Edwards for a segment on "The Tonight Show" (watch below) where he uttered his classic greetings and tried some new words on:

"Uptown funk," "Adele Dazeem" and "dat -ss tho."

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