Comedian Gilbert Gottfried Dies at 67

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried, known for both his raunchy humor and voiceovers in childrens’ cartoons, has passed away at 67.

His passing was confirmed in a post on his Twitter account from his family saying, “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.”

TMZ is reporting that his representative Glenn Schwartz said Gottfried, “died from a heart abnormality called Ventricular Tachycardia due to Myotonic Dystrophy type II.”

Gottfried’s comedy was often marked by subjects that were equal parts brilliant and putrid. His irreverence, self-depreciation and taboo-straddling approach to comedy were all part of an illustrious career in show business that spanned over 40 years.

Born in Brooklyn in 1955, Gottfried was raised with his sisters Arlene and Karen in Crown Heights. His parents owned a hardware store on Coney Island. He attended Jewish summer camp, and by age 15 was performing standup comedy. 

During his early years writing comedy, Gottfried made ends meet by working in an assembly line that made anti-burglary kits and worked in the concession stands of Broadway theaters.

His first break into show business came when producers at MTV saw him perform at one of the Catch a Rising Star clubs in New York City. They hired Gottfried to perform short comedy bits to air between music videos on the newly-created cable network.

“All the top executives at MTV got together and they were saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got an idea: How about we play all of the music that everybody hates!” Gottfried said in the bit.

He was a castmember on “Saturday Night Live” for 12 episodes in its sixth season. In 1984, he appeared in the box office smash hit “Beverly Hills Cop II” as an accountant in a scene where he and Eddie Murphy ad-libbed nearly every line.

He also appeared in the “Problem Child” film series and “Look Who’s Talking Too” before landing a role that would forever endear him to younger audiences. Gottfried did the voice of the bird Iago in the film “Aladdin,” and would continue to do so in several subsequent television iterations of the franchise. He would go onto have voice roles in numerous animated television shows for the remainder of his life, including “SpongeBob Square Pants,” “The Ren & Stimpy Show” and “Family Guy.”

While children might recognize his voice from cartoons, their parents certainly know Gottfried for his mastery of tasteless humor.

One of his most notable moments occurred mere weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Gottfried was performing at the New York Friars Roast of Hugh Hefner when he made the first notable attempt at a 9/11 joke. The crowd turned on him, and Gottfried savored the moment by doing an Aristocrats joke, which was objectively filthy and highly controversial. At the same time, his boldness endeared him even more to his fellow comedians.

“That’s the way my mind works. I wanted to basically address the elephant in the room,” Gottfried said of the moment in his 2017 documentary “Gilbert” (which is available to stream on PeacockTV).

“I think the Aristocrats sort of catapulted Gilbert into a world where blue comedy was considered artistic,” comedian Jeff Ross said in the documentary.

The respect Gottfried garnered from his fellow comedians throughout his career earned him the title, “the comedian’s comedian” for his ability to make comedians laugh.

Magician Penn Jillette wrote in his book, “God, No!” that he and Gottfried consoled each other with dark humor after their mothers died in the same short timespan.

“Gilbert and I did those jokes just to each other,” Jillette wrote. “Horrible, unfunny, gross, hateful jokes for hours and hours, just laughing and laughing at the pain and suffering of life.”

Jillette also included Gottfried’s Aristocrats joke in his documentary with Paul Provenza, “The Aristocrats.”

Gottfried would have a consistent calendar of television appearances. He was a regular on the television series “Hollywood Squares” and “The Apprentice,” and had numerous spots on the late night talk show circuit. He also worked several years as the voice of the Aflac Insurance Company’s talking duck in television commercials. But after a Twitter joke about the tsunami in Japan was deemed too inappropriate for a spokesman, the company fired him.

In recent years, Gottfried was on the reality series “Celebrity Wife Swap,” performed in almost all of the Comedy Central roasts and took revenge on Adolf Hitler by portraying him in Netflix’s World War II episode of “Historical Roasts.”

He released a 2011 memoir, “Rubber Balls and Liquor”—you can hear his voice in your head with every sentence as you read. Gottfried also recorded videos of himself reading sexually explicit excerpts from the book “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Since 2014, Gottfried has hosted his own horror film podcast called, “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast!”

Gottfried was massively successful at selling video greetings to fans on the Cameo platform—where patrons pay to have celebrities give personalized greetings. Gottfried’s clips averaged about 90 seconds long and cost $150 each. He was one of the top earners, reportedly making six figures per month. His biggest annual haul would be in the lead up to Father’s Day—if you followed comedians on social media, you would be inundated with targeted advertisements for giving the gift of Gilbert for Father’s Day.

While lending his voice and comedy to a variety of avenues in show business through the years, Gottfried continued to tour the world performing standup comedy to sold out crowds.

He is survived by his wife of 15 years, Dara Kravitz, their two children, who are ages 12 and 14 and his sister Karen.