Gilbert Gottfried, comedian and actor with an iconic voice, has died

He was 67.

“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,” his family wrote in a post on Twitter.

CNN has contacted Gottfried’s publicist for further comment.

Though audiences know him by his grating tone, it wasn’t yet his signature when he debuted as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” for one season from 1980 to 1981, one of a few seasons without Lorne Michaels at the helm. He mostly performed stand-up throughout the ’80s, regularly appearing on Howard Stern’s radio show.

Though he had a bit part in the ’80s hit “Beverly Hills Cop 2,” Gottfried’s celebrity rose in the 1990s. Throughout the decade, he employed his signature scream-speak in parts in animated films like “Aladdin,” as the mouthy macaw Iago, as well as live-action comedies like “Problem Child,” in which he played a scheming adoption agency employee.

In the 2000s and 2010s, Gottfried appeared in voice roles on series like “Family Guy” and as a contestant or “talking head” on reality series, including “Celebrity Wife Swap.” (He swapped wives with the late Alan Thicke.)

In his stand-up comedy, though, Gottfried’s style was filthy and delivered at a high decibel (perhaps you’ve heard him tell the famously blue “Aristocrats” joke). He also broached extremely sensitive topics head on, recalling in a 2012 opinion piece for CNN about a 9/11 joke he made during a roast of Hugh Hefner in Manhattan just days after the attacks (his audience didn’t appreciate it). In the same piece, he defended tweets he posted about the 2011 tsunami in Japan as “silly” and “dumb,” though those tweets later led Aflac, for whom he provided the voice of its mascot duck, to fire him.

“I have always felt comedy and tragedy are roommates,” he…

Source : cnn