Yesterday the world lost one of the most unique voices in comedy as Gilbert Gottfried passed away aged 67. His death, announced by his family, came after a long illness that he had kept private. Through it all Gilbert had kept doing what he did best, making people laugh.
Like many people, I knew him best for his voice work, specifically his voicing of Iago in Aladdin. And not just the original movie, Gilbert voiced the villainous sidekick turned heroic sidekick in both sequels and all but two episodes of the animated series. His voice is so synonymous with the loud mouth parrot that's it's almost impossible to believe Iago (or Sinbad as he was then known) was originally conceived to be prim and proper with a British accent. He went on to voice Iago for the rest of his life, in more TV series, in theme parks, and video games. I always loved the character, but as I got older he truly became one of my favourites and a large part of that was Gilbert Gottfried's performance. He brought the character to life in a way that went beyond what was on the page. He made him evil, but lovable, he made him redeemable, heroic even, but without losing that abrasiveness and biting sarcasm that made the character who he was. There was a lot of the public Gilbert in Iago. In private those who knew him always said how sweet and soft spoken he was, something he would jokingly tell them not to repeat in case it ruined his image.
Beyond Iago, I remember his work in the classic Superman: The Animated Series as well as the more recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Like I said, I knew him best through his voice work. And without ever seeing his face, you always knew it was him :) There was also that 50 Shades of Grey reading that is totally inappropriate to link to from this blog but never failed to make me laugh. And yes, I would totally have bought that audio book if he'd actually recorded it.
Last night, Aladdin's own Iago, Don Darryl Rivera led the cast in dedicating the performance to Gilbert, saying "Thank you for the laughs."
Gilbert's long time partner in Disney villainy, Jonathan Freeman led the tributes to his friend of over thirty years with two posts on social media. The first a shared statement between himself, Scott Weinger, and Linda Larkin:
And the second a reflection on the partnership they shared for 31 years:
Rest in peace Gilbert, and thank you for the laughter.
