New Delhi: Legendary Hollywood actor-comedian, Gilbert Gottfried passed away on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, after a prolonged illness. He was 67 years old.
He died from a rare genetic muscle disease that can trigger an abnormal heartbeat, Gottfriend’s publicist and friend Glenn Schwartz said in a statement.
“In addition to being the most active 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 honour,” the family statement read.
Born in Brooklyn, and raised within the stand-up scene of the New York City, Gottfried was known for edgy comedy.
Gottfried joked about the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001, two weeks after the incident while roasting the founder of Playboy, Hugh Hefner, on being unable to book a direct flight from New York to California.
Gottfried had also made a series of jokes on Twitter about the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed 18,000 people in Japan. Addressing his style of comedy, Gottfried had said, “I love to go where it’s a dark area. You never know what people will choose to be offended by.”
Tributes poured in from other comic actors and the entire Hollywood fraternity. He was well-known for being the voice of Iago, a sarcastic talking parrot of the evil Jafar in the 1992 animated film, Alladin.
(Avya Mathur)