Gilbert Gottfried

Gilbert Gottfried (born February 28, 1955, in Brooklyn, New York – April 12, 2022) was a Jewish American stand-up comedian and actor noted for his grating voice, his squint, his Brooklyn accent and his tendency to shout. Although he had a rather clean image on television and film, his stand up routines and appearances on The Howard Stern Show could be raunchy and racially explicit. He played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin (1992) and all sequels and spin-offs, and co-starring in the Problem Child movies (1990 and 1991). Although not a regular, he also appeared in the short-lived 1992 TV series The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys and voiced a crazed dentist "Dr. Bender" on the show The Fairly OddParents (The show's creator, Butch Hartman, took over his role.) He voiced the character "Beetle" in the critical 1994 flop Thumbelina.
Since 2000, he had also been the voice of the duck in the AFLAC commercials and Digit in the math-mystery cartoon Cyberchase on PBS Kids GO!, as well as the magical imp Mr. Mxyzptlk on Superman: The Animated Series. He also played a nasty wisecracking criminal genius named "Nick-Nack" who used toys to commit crimes on Superboy (TV Series). Gottfried made regular appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He shocked the audience in a Jeopardy! parody portraying Eminem repeating "Biatch" many times. He also was a notorious favorite of Howard Stern, appearing on his shock-radio show many times a year. Most famous for his impersonation of "Dracula Gottfried", he was also well known for his numerous, and often raunchy/racial, parodies of public figures including 50's B movie stars. Gottfried also did an accurate impersonation of Jerry Seinfeld, which he showcased on the Stern show as well as Clerks: The Animated Series. 
While it has been said that Gottfried's re-telling of the venerable Aristocrats joke at a Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner just three weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks inspired Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza to produce a film about the joke, Jillette and Provenza point out that they had already filmed Gottfried and that, in fact, it was their project that inspired him to choose that joke as his response to the audience's claim that there are certain unspoken limits in comedy. Gottfried initially began his performance at the roast joking that he had intended to catch a plane but couldn't get a direct flight because "they said they have to stop at the Empire State Building first". As audience members responded with gasps and cries of "too soon!", he launched into The Aristocrats. 
Gottfried was a cast member of the NBC late night series Saturday Night Live during its nadir, the 1980-1981 season. Gottfried's persona as displayed in SNL sketches was very different; he spoke in a mellow, low voice. During his twelve episode stint, he was extremely underused (with even the featured players garnering more airtime), leading to a deep depression that affected his performances. When Dick Ebersol took over as producer before the end of the season, there was an overhaul of both the cast and crew, and Gottfried was dismissed. 
Around 2002, Gilbert Gottfried appeared in an infamous McDonald's commercial parody. It featured a grossly obese woman dragging her child into a McDonald's restaurant while the child screamed and desperately tried to escape her clutches. Gilbert's voice could then be heard saying, "EVERYBODY'S SO FAT! AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF MCDONALD'S! I'M LOVIN' IT!!!" 
Gottfried was part of an online advertising campaign for Microsoft's Office XP software, showing, in a series of Flash-animated cartoons, that the Clippy office assistant would be removed. 
He also appeared on the television show Gameshow Marathon in June 2006, on the Let's Make a Deal episode.
== Notable Filmography ==
*Hot to Trot: Dentist
*Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events: Duck
*Doctor Dolittle: Compulsive Dog
*Thumbelina (1994 film): Mr. Beetle
*Aladdin: Iago
*Look Who's Talking Too: Joey
*Highway to Hell: Hitler
*Bonkers: Two-Bits
*Problem Child: Mr. Peabody
*The Adventures of Ford Fairlane: Johnny Crunch
*Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Roy
*Meet Wally Sparks: Harry Karp
*Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat: Additional Characters
*Beverly Hills Cop II: Sidney Bernstein
*Saturday Night Live: various sketches
*Back By Midnight: Security Guard
*Cyberchase: Digit
*Fairly OddParents: Dr. Bender
*Def Jam's How to Be a Player
==External links==
*The Official Site of Gilbert Gottfried
*
Category:Actors
Category:1955 births
Category:2022 deaths