If you’re at least in your mid-30s (give or take), you know Elwood Edwards’ voice, you realize it or not. He recorded the sentence: ‘You’ve got mail!’ and three other lines for Quantum Computer Services in 1989. That company was later renamed America Online, and the rest is early Internet history. Edwards died Tuesday.

WKYC first reported (via Variety) that Edwards died one day before his 75th birthday. He had a long off-camera presence at the Cleveland TV station, working as a graphic designer, cameraman and all-rounder.

His wife, Karen Edwards, was working at Quantum when she heard the company’s then-CEO talk about the need for a voice for the software that would soon bomb mailboxes across the US. “So she offered my voice,” Edwards said in a 2012 video. “And on a tape deck in my living room, I recorded the lines you came to know.”

He received a total of $200 for his voiceover work.

The new message’s tagline, recorded in Edwards’ calm and welcoming voice, became a cultural phenomenon during AOL’s heyday in the 1990s and early 2000s. That, of course, included inspiring the title of the Nora Ephron rom-com from 1998.

Edwards also contributed three (lesser known but still remembered by many) AOL sayings: “Welcome,” “File is ready,” and “Goodbye.” In the 2012 video, he is chased by several employees, prompting him to say this. (AOL is currently owned by Yahoo, Engadget’s parent company.)

“So that’s the story behind the slogan,” he said in the clip, “which I’m having a certain difficulty in escaping.”