The entertainer as remembered for his animated work (the parrot Iago in Disney’s Aladdin, Digit LeBoid in PBS’ Cyberchase, among others) as he was for using the same exaggerated yet singular voice to bring the house down with raunchy-as-it-can-go stand-up has passed away at the age of 67. He died in Manhattan on Tuesday after a battle with type II myotonic dystrophy.
“He would do something funny and not stop till you stopped laughing. God he was funny. So funny,” actor Ben Stiller tweeted.
Many others joined in sharing similar sentiments on yet another comedian lost. These past several months, the entertainment world has also bid farewell to the likes of Norm MacDonald, Bob Saget and Louie Anderson (the latter two picture with Gottfried below) – all close friends and contemporaries of Gottfried.
“Gilbert Gottfried made me laugh at times when laughter did not come easily,” said Seinfeld actor, Jason Alexander. “What a gift. I did not know him well but I loved what he shared with me. My best wishes and sympathy to his family.”
Gottfried is survived by wife, Dara, daughter, Lily, and son, Max.
It was his squinty-eyed, loud-mouthed and truly unique persona Gottfried first developed in the 1980s after a brief stint on Saturday Night Live that helped charge energy into Gottfried’s unending flight as a revered talent and multi-layered, unrelenting mind.
“I saw Gilbert perform in 1985 and when he entered to applause he said, ‘Thank you, thank you very much.’ He then continued to say ‘thank you’ repeatedly for ten full minutes. It was the nerviest, funniest thing I had seen. So sorry to lose this sweet and delightfully funny man,” Conan O’Brien shared via social media.
“I am so sad to read about the passing of Gilbert Gottfried. Funny, politically incorrect but a softie on the inside,” wrote Marlee Matlin, Oscar-winning deaf actress and co-star of this year’s Best Picture-winning CODA. “We met many times; he even pranked me on a plane, replacing my interpreter @655jack (they’re like twins). Sending love to Dara & his children.”
When he wasn’t cultivating impressionist mastery while assuming the form of Jerry Seinfeld, Andrew Dice Clay, and an older Groucho Marx, he was scoring small but scene-stealing roles in comedy films (Beverly Hills Cop II, Problem Child). He’d then enchant younger generations with his Aladdin, Cyberchase and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles efforts, and even served as the longtime voice of the Aflac Duck — all while never forfeiting his post as one of the last remaining “Kings of Crude,” as evidenced by his regular appearances at the Friars Club and Comedy Central Roasts.
Billions creator Brian Koppelman revealed Gottfried “meant more to me than you probably know,” noting that seeing his unparalleled “subversiveness and bravery” live when he was 14 “changed him.”
“I was at the post-9/11 roast (where Gottfried notoriously won back the Friars Roast of Hugh Hefner crowd after a “too soon” joke with a retelling of a vaudeville-originated, off-color and wildly taboo bit),” he added, “when he did aristocrats, and to this day, the lead up to that, and the doing of it, is the single most astonishing 5 minutes of stand up I have ever witnessed. Getting to do his podcast was a career highlight. Talking to him meant the world to me.”
He meant the world to many, and will be missed deeply.
