Gilbert Gottfried

Infobox actor
name = Gilbert Gottfried


imagesize =
caption = Gilbert Gottfried at the 1991 Emmy Awards
birthdate = birth date and age|1955|2|28
location = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
height = 5'0" (1.64 m)
deathdate =
birthname =
othername =
homepage =
notable role = Iago in "Aladdin"
Aflac Duck
Digit in "Cyberchase"

Gilbert Gottfried (born February 28 1955 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American stand-up comedian and actor whose most salient feature is a distinctively loud, rasping, [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0331906/bio Internet Movie Database. "Biography for Gilbert Gottfried"] ] grating voice [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gilbert_gottfried_dirty_jokes/ Rotten Tomatoes. Review of "Gilbert Gottfried: Dirty Jokes (2005)"] ] that has been described as "eternally obnoxious". [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/person/27947/Gilbert-Gottfried?inline=nyt-per New York Times. Movies. Bio: Gilbert Gottfried. Retrieved September 8, 2008.] ] He has played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's "Aladdin" (1992), as well as co-starring in the "Problem Child" movies.

Career

At age 15, Gilbert Gottfried began doing amateur stand-up in New York City and, after a few years, became known as "the comedian's comedian." [http://www.gilbertgottfried.com/bio.html Gilbert Gottfried official website. "Bio"] ] In 1980 the popular NBC late-night comedy show "Saturday Night Live" was being retooled with a new staff and new comedians; the producers noticed Gottfried and hired him as a cast member. During the 1980–1981 season, Gottfried's persona in "SNL" sketches was very different from his later characterization; he spoke in a low, mellow voice. During his 12-episode stint, he was seldom used (with even the featured players garnering more airtime). The low point of Gottfried's single "SNL" season was in a funeral-themed sketch, in which Gottfried was cast as the motionless corpse. This lack of participation led 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.

He made a comeback in the NBC sitcom "The Cosby Show". This 1987 episode, "Say Hello to a Good Buy," concerned Cosby and Malcolm Jamal-Warner, in character as father and son, shopping for a car. They "dress down" for the showroom, deliberately posing as lower-class customers to get a bargain price from the salesman. All goes well until friendly Gilbert Gottfried bursts onto the scene, yelling, "DOCTOR HUXTABLE!" Loudly and enthusiastically he greets the upscale Cosby, and asks about his upscale, professional wife, and his upscale home and family. From then on, Gilbert Gottfried adopted the "loudmouth" voice for his performances.

Although not a regular, he also appeared in the short-lived 1992 TV series "The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys" and voiced a crazed physician "Dr. Bender" on the show "The Fairly OddParents" and the voice of Jerry the Belly Button Elf on "Ren and Stimpy". He is notably known for his voice-overs as ducks or other birds. In 1993 he was interviewed by Chris Aable at the "B Minus Movie Awards" along with David Cassidy and Gary Coleman. Gottfried's interview aired on Chris Aable's cable TV show "Hollywood Today" in 1994 and is now part of his video "America's Craziest Home Videos". He was a co-host of the Saturday edition of USA Up All Night with Rhonda Shear.

Since 2000, he has 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 '. He also played a nasty wisecracking criminal genius named "Nick-Nack" who used toys to commit crimes on two episodes of the TV series "Superboy" (he also co-wrote an issue of the tie-in ' which featured the origin of his character, Nick-Nack). Gottfried makes regular appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". He shocked the audience in a "Jeopardy!" parody portraying Eminem repeating "biatch" many times as well as an enemy on "". To this day, his most well-known phrase used on "The Tonight Show" is "Son of a bitch!"

He also appeared as a semi-regular in the most recent version of "The Hollywood Squares". He is best remembered for a 1999 episode in which a single round of play took up the entire half-hour. The contestants had each won four stars/squares, leaving Gottfried as the last square available. Because this was a tiebreaker, contestants couldn't win a fifth square on their competitor's wrong response and had to win it themselves. The contestants alternated agreeing or disagreeing about whether Gottfried was bluffing an answer—and missed six consecutive tries. Five of those times he admonished the contestant with an increasingly incredulous "YOU FOOL!" The seventh time he and the contestant agreed, and that contestant finally won the square and the game. This segment was featured on game show blooper programs.

Gottfried is also a notorious favorite of Howard Stern, appearing on his radio show many times a year; Gottfried has made more appearances than any other celebrity guest. Most famous for his impersonation of "Dracula Gottfried" he is also well known for his numerous, and often raunchy/racial, parodies of public figures including 1950s B-movie stars and a particularly accurate impersonation of the aged Groucho Marx. Gottfried also does an impersonation of Jerry Seinfeld, which he has showcased on the Stern show as well as "". Coming on the Stern show immediately after David Brenner years ago, Gottfried proceeded to parody Brenner's lengthy child custody problems and Brenner's former girl friend's drug addiction and her adequacy as custodial parent: "Sure she uses heroin, but she still takes vitamin C!" Gilbert was censored on the Sirius satellite version of the Stern show after making an off-color joke about Steve Irwin's daughter Bindi. [ [http://www.gilbertgottfried.com/blog.html Gilbert Gottfried official website. Blog. February 13, 2007. "Bleeped on Stern"] ]

He frequently parodies Jewish rabbis and cantors, making up atonal gibberish prayers and compositions on the spot. Gilbert is known for his impression of Andrew Dice Clay... or "Dice Gottfried".

Gottfried famously told the venerable Aristocrats joke at a Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner just three weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Gottfried's quick wit saved what could have been a notorious disaster. He began his monologue 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 nervously responded with gasps and cries of "Too soon!", Gottfried abandoned his prepared remarks and launched into the Aristocrats joke, effectively winning back the audience and having roastmaster Rob Schneider literally falling out of his chair laughing. When the laughter and applause had subsided, Gottfried commented, "They might have to clean this up for TV," to more laughter and applause. Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza used Gottfried's monologue as a segment in their 2005 film, "The Aristocrats".

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. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20060407094135/http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid7852.aspx Archived web page of The Phoenix. REC ROOM, Feature stories. Bill Jensen and Ryan Stewart. April 4, 2006. "The 100 unsexiest men in the world. Who would Scarlett least like to be with?"] ] 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 1-hour Christmas Special. He voiced Rick Platypus in an episode of "My Gym Partner's a Monkey" entitled "That Darn Platypus". Furthermore, Gottfried appeared as Peter's horse in an episode of "Family Guy" entitled "Boys Do Cry".

During Bill Maher's tenure at ABC (1997–2002), Gottfried was a frequent guest on "Politically Incorrect."

Gottfried was a guest floor reporter during G4's live coverage of the E3 Convention in 2006. At one point in the coverage, program host Adam Sessler asked the question, "What does Gilbert Gottfried have to do with gaming?" To which Gilbert said, "Absolutely nothing!"

Personal life

On December 6, 2006, Gottfried announced on "The Howard Stern Show" that he was engaged and that his fiancée, longtime girlfriend Dara Kravitz, was pregnant. Gottfried and Kravitz were married under a chuppah on February 3, 2007. Lily Aster Gottfried was born on June 12, 2007.

Selected filmography

[ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0331906/ Internet Movie Database. "Gilbert Gottfried"] ] [ [http://www.gilbertgottfried.com/credits.html Gilbert Gottfried official website. "Credits"] ]
*"Saturday Night Live": various sketches (1980–1981)
*"Beverly Hills Cop II": Sidney Bernstein (1987)
*"Hot to Trot": Dentist (1988)
*"The Adventures of Ford Fairlane": Johnny Crunch (1990)
*"Look Who's Talking Too": Joey (1990)
*"Problem Child": Mr. Peabody (1990)
*"Problem Child 2": Mr. Peabody (1991)
*"Night Court (TV series)": as Oscar Brown (1991)
*"Aladdin": Iago (1992)
*"Highway to Hell": Hitler (1992)
*"Bonkers": Two-Bits (1993–1995)
*"Thumbelina": Berkeley Beetle (1994)
*"": Burt Banner (1994)
*"Duckman": (recurring role) Art DeSalvo (1994–1997)
*"Married...with Children": Ship Happens: Part 2 (1995)
*"": Mr. Peabody (1995)
*"The Cosby Show patient (1987)
*"Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat": Additional Characters (1995–1996)
*"Are You Afraid of the Dark?": Roy (1996)
*"": Mr Mxyzptlk (1996–2000)
*"Def Jam's How to Be a Player (1997)
*"Dr. Dolittle": Compulsive Dog (1998)
*"Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (TV series)": As himself in episodes 503 and 506 (1999)
*"": the voice of Jerry Seinfeld and Patrick Swayze (2000)
*"Mad TV": special appearance, one episode (1997)
*"The Fairly Odd Parents": Dr. Bender/Wendell
*"Kingdom Hearts": Iago (2002)
*"": Iago (2004)
*"Kingdom Hearts II": Iago (2006)
*"Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events": Duck (2004)
*"Celebrity Deathmatch :As himself in episode "Gottfried in America"
*"Cyberchase": Digit and Widget (2002–present)
*"The Aristocrats" (2005)
*"Back by Midnight" (2002): Security Guard
*"Becker": A plastic surgeon
*"Meet Wally Sparks": Harry Karp
*"Ren & Stimpy": Jerry the BellyButton Elf
*"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno": various sketches
*"Son of the Beach:" Noccus Johnstein in "Hamm Stroker's Suck My Blood":(2002)
*VH1's "Celebrity Paranormal Project" and "I Love Toys"
*"Billy and Mandy Save Christmas": Santa Claus
*"Farce of the Penguins": (2007)
*"Family Guy": Peter's horse while in Texas
*"My Gym Partner's a Monkey": Rick Platypus
*"": El Cerdo
*"Hannah Montana" Season 2 Episode "(We're So Sorry) Uncle Earl" (2008)
* VH1's "I Love the New Millennium" 4 Episodes (2008)
*"The Emperor's New School"2.season 11 Episodes (12.03.2007)
*"The Comedy Central Roast": Bob Saget (2008)
*"The Lindabury Story" (2009)

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0331906|name=Gilbert Gottfried
* [http://www.gilbertgottfried.com/ The Official Site of Gilbert Gottfried]

Persondata
NAME= Gottfried, Gilbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=
DATE OF BIRTH= 1955-2-28
PLACE OF BIRTH= Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=