This week the world lost one of the most recognizable voices in sci-fi history. Here are some of Gilbert Gottfried’s greatest roles ranked.
Legendary stand-up comedian and actor Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried died on April 12, 2022. He was 67-years old. While his face was recognizable to many his exaggeratedly abrasive shrill voice was what fans mostly remember. From animated movies like the parrot Iago in Aladdin to commercials for the insurance company Aflac his career rose and fell on his voice and off-color humor.
His stand-up comedy was well-known for being overtly offensive and hilarious. Gottfried’s incredibly raunchy joke in Aristocrats is legendary. On the other hand, his jokes about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan got him fired from his job as the duck in the Aflac commercials.
Here are Gilbert Gottfried’s greatest roles in science-fiction movies and television.
9. Double Dragon (1994) as Walter
In 1994 Imperial Entertainment Group made a live-action movie based on the insanely popular martial arts arcade game Double Dragon.
The film is set in the “future”. In the year 2007 Los Angeles, California has been ravaged by a series of earthquakes. The city is being rocked by ongoing aftershocks and gangs roam the streets. It starred many notable actors like Alyssa Milano (“Who’s the Boss”) as Marian Delario and Robert Patrick (“Terminator 2: Judgement Day”) as antagonist Koga Shuko leader of the Shadow Warriors. Two brothers Jimmy (Mark Dacascos) and Billy Lee (Scott Wolf) set out to keep a powerful medallion out of Shuko’s hands.
Gilbert Gottfried had been acting for six years at this point. He was best known for his role in the Problem Child movies as Mr. Peabody. Unfortunately, according to a Twitter user who worked on the film going by the name @MidwestMovies his role as a shop owner named Walter had been cut from the theatrical release.
Pretty sad so we’ll never know what his performance was like.
8. Blankman (1994) as “Man on TV”
Blankman is a superhero parody film starring Damon Wayans. He plays an inventor named Darryl Walker. Darryl and his brother Kevin (David Alan Grier) are fans of the 1960s television series Batman.
After the murder of their grandmother, he decides to become the superhero Blankman. Darryl builds a series of gadgets out of junk and he and his brother fight crime.
The movie is a critical and box office flop but does have Gilbert Gottfried in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role as an unnamed man on television. But at least he made it into the final movie.
7. Robotomy (2010) as Tickle Me Psycho (voice)
Robotomy is an animated television series created by Michael Buckley and Joe Deasy. It ran in the United States from October 25, 2010, to January 24, 2011, on Cartoon Network. The show starred Thrasher (Patton Oswalt) and Blastus (John Gemberling) as two teenage robots who attend high school on the planet Insanus. The two live on a planet of sentient robots where most of the other bots try to kill one another.
In the episode “Playdate” Gilbert Gottfried lends his voice to the psychopathic children’s toy named Tickle Me Psycho. The toy attacks and kills anyone who touches him. His voice fits perfectly with the psychotic toy for this little-known show.
6. Critters: A New Binge (2019) as Uncle
The 1986 science fiction comedy horror film Critters is a movie about small, furry aliens crashlanding on Earth. They’re escaping from two shape-shifting bounty hunters. The creatures, known as Krites, start ravenously eating people and animals in the small countryside town. A group of kids teams up with one of the bounty hunters to take them down.
The film was well-received by critics and led to three more films. In 2019 the streaming service Shudder produces a series of short live-action webisodes based on the franchise. In it, a group of Krites comes to Earth on a secret mission to rescue a missing critter. Three high school kids team up with two bounty hunters to stop the aliens.
Frankly, the show didn’t do well. Shudder not only shut the series down after eight episodes it scrubbed the series from existence. They’re not available on any streaming service.
Gottfried plays one of the boy’s eccentric Uncle. At his age, he still manages to capture the manic energy of his younger days while still being warm and caring. It’s one of the few bright spots in the series.
5. Superboy (1990) as Nick Knack
A live-action television series based on the adventures of young Superman ran in syndication from 1988 to 1992. The Superboy series focused on a young Clark Kent reporting for the college newspaper, the “Shuster Herald”. Along the way, he fought crime in his alter-ego of Superboy in the fictional coastal city of Siegelville.
During the series run Superboy fought a few villains from the comics. But in season two the hero fought against a villain created for the show. Gilbert Gottfried plays an eccentric inventor who creates various weapons and devices based on toys. In the episode, he sucks Superboy’s energy to power a suit of armor. Not exactly Iron Man. The character appears to be loosely based on the DC villain Toy Man who uses toys to commit crimes.
While the character is poorly written Gottfried is able to put a mischievous and wacky spin on the character. It’s one of the few times he played a villain and he’s great at it.
4. Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens (2016) as Ron McDonald
The comedy science-fiction disaster movie Sharknado aired in 2013 on the SyFy channel. The movie follows a series of tornados that inexplicably contain ravenous killer sharks that attack and eat people.
It was insanely popular and launched a pop culture phenomenon that spawned five sequels. In the fourth movie Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens Gilbert Gottfried plays Today correspondent Ron McDonald. He reprises the role in the fifth movie. The sixth film has him playing Ron’s ancestor in the Old West. His roles are brief but hilarious. Gottfried took a minor character and made him a recurring one.
3. Superman: The Animated Series (1990) as Mr. Mxyzptlk (voice)
Superman has had a number of live-action and animated appearances. One of the most influential is the animated series that ran from 1996 to 2000. It’s created by the same team who made the Batman animated series. The show broke new ground by being faithful to the original comics and updated to incorporate DC Comics’ recent reboot of the character.
One of the many characters brought from the comics to the small screen was Mr. Mxyzptlk. The Fifth-dimensional trickster has the ability to warp reality and enjoys torturing our dimension for fun. Superman often has to stop by by outthinking and tricking him.
Gottfried uses his gravelly and smarmy voice to great effect and manages to make the character whimsical and terrifying at the same time. His performance was so good that he was brought in to voice the character for video games like Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and the animated series Justice League Action.
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) as Kraang Sub-Prime (voice)
Starting out as an underground comic book the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles follows four mutated turtles who know martial arts and battle evil. The “Heroes in a Half-Shell” have been rebooted and rebooted again and again in live-action and cartoons.
Starting in 2012 a computer-animated series aired on Nickelodeon from 2012 to 2017. The main villains were aliens from Dimension X. Their leader Kraang Prime were determined to take over Earth and make it habitable for them. His second in command was voiced by Gilbert Gottfried and is known as Kraang Sub-Prime.
Like all the aliens he hid his true form, a purple blob with tentacles, in a robot suit. He appeared in six episodes of the series and his grating voice perfectly matches the character.
1. Cyberchase (2009) as Digit LeBoid
PBS Kids is known for its award-winning television network that produces a variety of shows. The show Cyberchase premiered in 2002 and has been running for 20 years. The animated show centers around three children named Jackie, Matt, and Inez they’re brought into the virtual computer world of Cyberspace to fight the evil villain named Hacker. The trio uses their problem-solving skills along with their knowledge of math and science to fight him.
In Cyberspace the kids are helped by a digital bird known as Digit. The lovable bird is voiced by Gilbert Gottfried. His voice is perfect with the wise-cracking fowl and is beloved by children everywhere.
It’s ironic that his greatest role is on a children’s show. But, whether you love him or hate him, his love of entertaining is what made him great.
Happy trails Gilbert Gottfried.
| About the Author Maurice Mitchell has been a passionate science-fiction fan of movies, television, books, and comics since age five. He and his twin brother Nigel created the site “The Geek Twins” to share that passion. Maurice has written and created infographics for sites like The Geek Twins and About.com. His work has been featured on sites like Business Insider, io9 Slashfilm and more. Read more of his posts | Follow him on Twitter @Mauricem1972 |
What’s your favorite role from Gilbert Gottfried? Let us know in the comments below!
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