Gilbert Gottfried

Gilbert Gottfried (born February 28, 1955) is an American actor, voice actor and stand-up comedian whose trademark comedic persona involves speaking in a loud, grating tone of voice and squinting. He has played numerous roles in film and television, perhaps most notably voicing the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin (1992), and co-starred in the Problem Child movies. He is also known for voicing Digit in the children's cartoon / educational math-based show Cyberchase, and the Aflac Duck until 2011. --- Gottfried was born in Brooklyn, New York. At age fifteen, Gilbert Gottfried began doing amateur stand-up in New York City and, after a few years, became known around New York as "the comedian's comedian." In 1980,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 rarely (if ever) spoke in his trademark screeching, obnoxious voice and never squinted. During his 12-episode stint, he was given very little airtime and seldom used in sketches. Gottfried recalls a low point was having to play a corpse in a sketch about a sports organist hired to play inappropriate music at a funeral. Despite this, he had one recurring character (Leo Waxman, husband to Denny Dillon's Pinky Waxman on the recurring talk show sketch, "What's It All About?") and two celebrity impersonations: David A. Stockman and controversial film director Roman Polanski. Although not a regular, he also appeared in the short-lived 1992 TV series The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys and voiced crazed dentist "Dr. Bender" and his son Wendell 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—when asked how he prepared for his role of Iago in Aladdin, he said "I did the whole DeNiro thing. I moved to South America! I lived in the trees!" He was the host of the Saturday edition of USA Up All Night. Rhonda Shear hosted the Friday version. --- In the late 1990s, he met music executive Dara Kravitz at a Grammy Awards party. They married in 2007.