Gilbert Gottfried, the comedian who gave the parrot a voice in the hit Disney animated film “Aladdin” and the duck in Aflac insurance commercials — and whose manic, rowdy, and highly original stand-up routines use old-fashioned borscht-leash shtick with horrific vulgarity — has passed away. He was 67.
His family announced death on social media. The announcement did not specify when or where he died or the cause of death, other than that he died “after a long illness”.
The voiceover work of Mr. Gottfried – most notably his portrayal of the excited parrot Iago in “Aladdin” (1992) and its sequel and spin-offs – earned him a legion of fans. Many of them were too young to have seen the Gilbert Gottfried, or even familiar with the Gilbert Gottfried who was caught telling a graphically sordid joke in the 2005 documentary “The Aristocrats” – which he shot in the fall of 2001. told a crowd that had suddenly grown hostile after trying to joke about the September 11 terrorist attacks.
A full obituary will be published shortly.
