Gilbert Gottfried, the controversial and one-of-a-kind comedian and actor with a voice as unique as his comedy, died today after a lengthy illness, his family announced. He was 67.
A statement posted on Gottfried’s Twitter page reads: “We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert Gottfried after a long illness. In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert’s honor. Love, the Gottfried family.”
NBC News reported that Gottfried died at 2:35 p.m. ET of recurrent ventricular tachycardia — an abnormal heart rhythm — due to myotonic dystrophy type II. The cause was attributed to Glenn Schwartz, Gottfried’s longtime friend and publicist.
Related Stories
Gottfried was known for trademark shrill, nasally and instantly recognizable voice, squinted eyes, faux anger and a comic delivery that melded classic Borscht Belt style with contemporary (and often crass) substance. His appeal stretched from adults — he popularized the remarkably vulgar joke featured in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats — and at least two generations of children, through his voiceover work as the parrot Iago in Disney’s Aladdin (1992) and various TV cartoons. He earned a 2009 Daytime Emmy nom for his voice role as Digit in the PBS Kids series Cyberchase. He has been featured in more than 80 episodes of the show extending to this year.
Gottfried would reprise the Iago role for the 1994 direct-to-video sequel Aladdin 2: The Return of Jafar,the 1994-95 animated Aladdinseries and 2001the early-2000s toon series House of Mouse.
Gilbert Gottfried’s Comedy Career: A Photo Gallery
He also voiced the duck in numerous memorable TV commercials for Aflac insurance.
His Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast was one of the medium’s most popular.
Gottfried was the subject ofGilbert, a feature documentary that premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and peeks behind the curtain of the comedic persona and into the personal life of the comedian, who became a husband and father later in life. Gravitas Ventures acquired rights to the pic, which features testimonials from many of Gottfried’s fellow comedians and public personalities including Dave Atell, Joy Behar, Lewis Black, Bill Burr and Whoopi Goldberg.
‘Gilbert’ Subject Gilbert Gottfried On Seeing His Personal Life Portrayed On Screen: “This Could Be What Hell Is”
Director Neil Berkeley told Deadline at the time that getting these talents to appear in the doc was easy, though there was one famous actor and comedian who had to pull out at the last moment. Watch a trailer here:
One of his generation’s most controversial comics, Gottfried often outraged sponsors, network executives and sometimes even his own fans. In 1991, Fox censored the West Coast broadcast of the Emmy Awards after Gottfried made a string of Pee-wee Herman masturbation jokes. At a Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner shortly after the 9/11 attacks, his quip about a not being able to catch a plane drew boos and shouts of “Too soon.” He’d later say that the audience reaction prompted him to abandon his planned routine and pivot to the infamously filthy Aristocrats joke.
Ten years later, Gottfried again outraged the public again with several tweets about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. He lost his Aflac gig in the immediate aftermath.
Born on February 28, 1955, in Brooklyn, Gottfried began his stand-up comedy career at age 15 and became known to a national audience when he joined the ill-fated 1980 season of Saturday Night Live. Gottfried later reteamed with SNL‘s Eddie Murphy in the 1987 action-comedy feature Beverly Hills Cop II.
Hollywood Mourns Death Of Comedy Icon Bob Saget: “Wasn’t A Kinder Person In Hollywood”
In 1989, Gottfried became the original host USA Network’sUp All Night,which consisted primarily of low-budget films interspersed with comedy sketches. He continued to co-host the late-night show from New York until 1998.
His many other TV credits include numerous celebrity roasts — he was a regular on that circuit — Night Court, Becker, Wings, Mad About You, Son of the Beach, Hannah Montana, Sesame Street, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Fairly OddParents, Ren and Stimpy, SpongeBob SquarePants, VH1’s I Love the ’70s and I Love the ’80s and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,among many others.
Gottfried also appeared in movies ranging from Bad Medicine (1985), the early-’90s Problem Childfilms and playing Adolf Hitler in Highway to Hell (1991) toHouse Party 3(1994), Doctor Dolittle (1998), The Last Request (2006) and Jack and the Beanstalk (2010).
Gottfried appeared as a guest on numerous talk shows ranging from Late Night with David LettermanandThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno to Howard Stern and The View.He also appeared on games shows includingHollywood Squares and Pyramid.
He gave voice to “Jared Kushner” on several episodes of Last Week Tonight with John Oliverand was a contestant on the 2015 season of NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice,hosted by soon-to-be-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Gottfried continued to perform as recently as last month, tweeting on March 26, “Hey Canadians! I’ll be performing tonight and tomorrow night in Toronto at the Paradise Theatre.”
His final tweet, on March 28, was a defense of an old friend: Alongside a photograph of himself with Chris Rock, Gottfried asked, “Which is the worst crime? Chris Rock being physically assaulted or Chris Rock telling a joke?”
Gottfried is survived by wife, Dara; daughter Lily and son Max; sister Karen; and nephew Graham.
— Gilbert Gottfried (@RealGilbert) April 12, 2022
