Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was best known for his exaggerated shrill voice, strong New York dialect, his squint, and his edgy, often controversial sense of humor. His numerous roles in film and television included voicing Iago in the Walt Disney Company's Aladdin franchise until his death in 2022, Mister Mxyzptlk in Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Action, Digit LeBoid in PBS Kids' Cyberchase until his death, Kraang Subprime in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Aflac duck mascot before he was replaced by Daniel McKeague in 2011. He also played Mr. Peabody in the Problem Child franchise, the only actor in the series to reprise his role in all three films as well as the animated television series.
Gottfried hosted Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast (2014–2022), along with Frank Santopadre, which featured discussions of classic films and celebrity interviews, most often with veteran actors, comedians, musicians, and comedy writers. The documentary Gilbert (2017) explored his life and career.
Gottfried was born in the Coney Island section of the Brooklyn borough of New York City on February 28, 1955, the son of hardware store owner Max Gottfried and homemaker Lillian Zimmerman. His father and grandfather ran the store, above which the family lived. He was raised in a non-practicing Jewish family, and said of his upbringing, "I ate pork. We weren't that aware of the holidays or anything like that, but were aware of being Jewish. It's like I kind of knew that even though I was never bar mitzvahed and we didn't follow the holidays, I knew that if the Nazis came back, I'd be in the same train coach with everyone else."
He was the younger brother of Karen Gottfried and photographer Arlene Gottfried (1950–2017).
From Coney Island, the family moved to Brooklyn's Crown Heights, followed by Borough Park.
Gottfried's first comedy routine on stage was at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village during one of its Hootenanny Night events when he was 15 years old. His two sisters Arlene and Karen accompanied him, having thought the performances he did for the family were good enough for the stage and encouraged him 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 became bored with his usual routines. One such incident occurred when Gottfried opened for Belinda Carlisle, which was attended by younger girls and their mothers. Gottfried stated: "I tried doing my regular act for about 5 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, when 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 its sixth season. Gottfried's persona during Saturday Night Live sketches was different from his later characterization: He rarely spoke in his trademark voice and never squinted. During his 12-episode stint, he did not get along with the writers and was rarely used in sketches. He played one recurring character named Leo Waxman (husband of Denny Dillon's Pinky Waxman on the recurring talk show sketch "What's It All About?") and did two celebrity impersonations: David Stockman and Roman Polanski.
In April 1987, Gottfried headlined a half-hour comedy special that aired as part of the Cinemax Comedy Experiment series. Gottfried played Sidney Bernstein in Beverly Hills Cop II, in which he reunited with friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus Eddie Murphy. In August that same year, Gottfried made his debut appearance on The Howard Stern Show. He went on to make over 100 appearances on the radio show over the next 25 years. That year, he also starred in the sitcom pilot Norman's Corner, co-written by Larry David prior to creating Seinfeld.
Although not a regular, Gottfried appeared in The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys, as well as performed the voice of Jerry the Belly Button Elf in Ren and Stimpy. Three of his most prominent roles came in 1990, 1991, and 1992, when he was cast as Igor Peabody in Problem Child and Problem Child 2 and Iago in Aladdin. When asked how he prepared for the role of Iago, Gottfried joked, "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. Gottfried also voiced Berkeley Beetle in the 1994 film Thumbelina. He was the host of the Saturday edition of USA Up All Night for its entire run from 1989 to 1998.
He was a recurring guest star during the Tom Bergeron era of Hollywood Squares and became the center of attention in a bizarre episode that aired on 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. As the only remaining square, whoever captured him would have five squares and therefore win the game. Penn Jillette, who was a guest alongside Teller on the same episode, berated a contestant earlier for giving an incorrect guess by shouting, "You fool!". Gottfried himself began to use the phrase, with most of the other stars (even including Bergeron) eventually joining in with every successive wrong guess, beginning with the second question he was asked. As a result, it took the episode's entire half-hour to play only one game. The game only ended with the question "The word 'smog' comes from what two words?"; Gottfried correctly guessed "'smoke' and 'fog'", to Bergeron's joy. 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, Digit in Cyberchase, 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 Mister 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, which featured Nick Knack's origin. Gottfried made regular appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno including where he played Harry Potter and Yoda.
In 2004, Comedy Central featured Gottfried's stand-up material for Shorties Watchin' Shorties., Gottfried appeared on Tony Touch's video Dimelo with Doo Wop & John Leguizamo, Gottfried was part of an online advertising campaign for Microsoft's Office XP software, showing (in a series of 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, he 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 & 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 is excited to learn that Gottfried is providing the voice of the horse. He also voiced himself in some episodes. 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 his trademark voice to make fun of the book's graphic sexual content.