Comedian Gilbert Gottfried has died

Andrew Limbong

April 12, 2022 / 1:10 pm

caption: Comedian Gilbert Gottfried performs at a David Lynch Foundation Benefit for Veterans with PTSD in New York on April 30, 2016.

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried has died at 67. A post on his verified Twitter feed says he died following a long illness.

Gottfried died from recurrent ventricular tachycardia due to myotonic dystrophy type II, a disorder that affects the heart, according to a statement by his publicist and longtime friend Glenn Schwartz to the Associated Press.

There was always a glint in his eye when Gottfried was just about to tell an edgy joke, for example this one from his Just for Laughs set in 2015: "Let me tell you when I was a little boy if my father bought me a baseball I would've made out with him ... and I don't want to tell you what I would've done for a G.I Joe."

Whether it was natural disasters or terrorist attacks, the phrase "too soon" was never a part of his vocabulary as Gottfried told NPR in 2011.

"There's that old saying, tragedy plus time equals comedy. And I always say like, well, why wait?"

Gottfired was also an actor, including lending his unique voice to Disney's Aladdin.