Gilbert Gottfried

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**Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried** (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor known for his exaggerated shrill voice, strong New York accent, and his edgy sense of humor.

## Career

Gottfried's first routine on stage was at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village, during one of its Hootenanny Night events, when he was fifteen. His two sisters accompanied him, having thought the performances their brother did for the family were good enough for the stage and encouraged Gottfried to try it out. His early routines focused on impressions of old time actors and celebrities, including Boris Karloff and Humphrey Bogart. From there he worked the local comedy circuit and became known in the area as a "comedian's comedian", and started to perform edgier material when he got bored of his usual routines. One such incident occurred when Gottfried opened for singer Belinda Carlisle, which was attended by younger girls and their mothers: "I tried doing my regular act for about five minutes, then I just launched into the filthiest stuff I could think of. And the next day, I got a call from my agent saying 'Everybody there loved you', which is show business talk for, 'You're fired.'

In 1980, *Saturday Night Live* was being retooled with a new staff and new comedians; the producers noticed Gottfried and hired him as a cast member for season 6. Gottfried's persona during *SNL* sketches was very different from his later characterization: he rarely spoke in his trademark obnoxiously screeching voice and never squinted. During his 12-episode stint, he was seldom used in sketches. Gottfried recalled that a low point was having to play a corpse in a sketch about a sports organist hired to play inappropriate music at a funeral. He did have one recurring character (Leo Waxman, husband to Denny Dillon's Pinky Waxman on the recurring talk show sketch, "What's It All About?") and two celebrity impersonations: David A. Stockman and Roman Polanski.

In April 1987, Gottfried headlined a half-hour comedy special that aired as part of the *Cinemax Comedy Experiment* series. It was followed by the sitcom pilot *Norman's Corner*, co-written by Larry David prior to creating *Seinfeld*, which saw Gottfried as the titular character. Gottfried played accountant Sidney Bernstein in the 1987 film *Beverly Hills Cop II*, in which he reunited with friend and fellow *SNL* alumnus Eddie Murphy. Also in 1987, Gottfried made his debut appearance on *The Howard Stern Show*. He went on to make numerous appearances on the radio show over the next 25 years.

Although not a regular, Gottfried appeared in *The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys*, as well as the voice of Jerry the Belly Button Elf on *Ren and Stimpy*. Three of his most prominent roles came in 1990, 1991, and 1992, when he was cast as the adoption agent Igor Peabody in *Problem Child* and *Problem Child 2* and the parrot Iago in *Aladdin*. When asked how he prepared for the role, Gottfried said, "I did the whole DeNiro thing. I moved to South America! I lived in the trees!" Gottfried reprised the role in *The Return of Jafar*, *Aladdin and the King of Thieves*, the television series and various related media, such as *Kingdom Hearts* and *House of Mouse*. However, the character was ultimately recast to Alan Tudyk for the 2019 remake. He also voiced Berkeley Beetle in 1994's *Thumbelina*. He was the host of the Saturday edition of *USA Up All Night* for its entire run from 1989 to 1998.

Gottfried was a recurring guest star during the Tom Bergeron era of *The Hollywood Squares* and became the center of attention in a bizarre episode that aired October 1, 1999. In this episode, the two contestants made nine consecutive incorrect guesses, six of which were to be game-deciding questions asked to Gottfried. Magician Penn Jillette, who was a guest alongside his magic partner Teller on the same episode, berated a contestant earlier for giving an incorrect guess by shouting, "You fool!" Gottfried himself then began to use the phrase, with most of the other stars (including Bergeron himself) eventually joining in with every successive wrong guess, beginning with the second question he was asked. As a consequence, it took the episode's entire half hour to play only one game. Appropriately, the episode became known as the "You Fool!" episode. Gottfried was temporarily fired from *Hollywood Squares* after this incident returning about a month later.

Gottfried provided the voice of the duck in the Aflac commercials and Digit in *Cyberchase*, as well as the crazed dentist Dr. Bender and his son Wendell in *The Fairly OddParents*, and Mister Mxyzptlk (pronounced "Mikz-yez-pit-lik") in *Superman: The Animated Series*. He reprised his role as Mxyzptlk in *Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham*, *Justice League Action*, and *Lego DC Super-Villains*. He also played a nasty wisecracking criminal genius named Nick Knack in two episodes of *Superboy* (he also co-wrote an issue of *Superboy: The Comic Book*, which featured Nick Knack's origin). Gottfried made regular appearances on *The Tonight Show with Jay Leno*.

In 2004, Comedy Central featured Gottfried's stand-up material for *Shorties Watchin' Shorties*. 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. In 2006, Gottfried topped the *Boston Phoenix*'s tongue-in-cheek list of the world's 100 Unsexiest Men. In April 2006, Gottfried performed with the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Club in their annual Intercollegiate Comedy Festival. Also in 2006, he made an appearance on the *Let's Make a Deal* portion of *Gameshow Marathon* (as a baby in a large high chair, he says "Hey Ricki, I think I need my diaper changed!"), and in the Dodge Viper in the big deal (where he tells the contestants "What were you thinking?!" because neither one picked it). He also guest-starred in *The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy* as Santa Claus in the one-hour Christmas Special. He voiced Rick Platypus in an episode of *My Gym Partner's a Monkey* entitled "That Darn Platypus".

He appeared as Peter's horse in an episode of *Family Guy* entitled "Boys Do Cry" (in which Peter Griffin is enthused to learn that Gottfried is providing the horse's voice). He also guest-starred in *Hannah Montana* as Barny Bittmen. In January 2009, Gottfried worked again with David Faustino for an episode of Faustino's show *Star-ving*. In 2011, Gottfried appeared in the episode "Lost Traveller" on *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit* as Leo Gerber, a sarcastic computer professional working for the NYPD's Technical Assistance Response Unit, which producer Warren Leight said could become a recurring character. Gottfried read a section from the hit book *Fifty Shades of Grey* in a June 2012 YouTube video, which was created with the aim of using Gottfried's trademark voice to make fun of the book's graphic sexual content.

In 2011, Gottfried published his only book, *Rubber Balls and Liquor*.

In 2013, Gottfried became a member of "Team Rachael" on the second season of Food Network's *Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off*. In March that year he appeared on ABC's *Celebrity Wife Swap*. He swapped wives with Alan Thicke. He was also a commentator on *truTV Presents: World's Dumbest...*.

On May 28, 2014, Sideshow Network premiered *Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast*, an interview series where Gottfried and his co-host Frank Santopadre discussed classic movies and talk to "Hollywood legends and behind-the-scenes talents" who shaped Gottfried's childhood and influenced his comedy. His first guest was Dick Cavett. His final guest was Brenda Vaccaro, in a two part episode released on April 25 and May 2, 2022. Gottfried would be hospitalised a few hours after the episode's recording. The fate of the podcast is uncertain at this time, following Gottfried's death.

Gottfried was the third contestant fired during the fourteenth season of the NBC reality show *The Celebrity Apprentice*. In 2016 he played the 'Pig Man' in a comedy/fantasy film *Abnormal Attraction*.

In 2017 he appeared as himself in *Episodes*, where a contestant on a fictional TV endurance game show is penalized with "48 hours of Gilbert Gottfried".

On June 10, 2018, Gottfried appeared in a special segment of *Last Week Tonight with John Oliver* where, for UK viewers only, a segment about the UK's law restricting broadcast of debates from the Houses of Parliament was replaced by five minutes of him reading "3-star Yelp reviews" along with host John Oliver telling the audience "you brought this on yourself because of your stupid law". He returned on November 18, 2018, in the show's last episode of the year to read out extracts from the Brexit agreement, again for UK viewers only. He had previously performed as "the real voice of Jared Kushner" in dubbed film clips on the show.

On July 31, 2019, Gottfried appeared as a guest in episode 170 of the *Angry Video Game Nerd*.

## Trivia

* His role as God in Charlie Dies And Doesn't Come Back would be his last role before his death