Gilbert Gottfried left behind at least 200 hours of content on his Cameo page as well as secret outtakes from him in the role as the parrot Iago in Disney's 1992 animated "Aladdin" film.
The film's co-directors John Musker and Ron Clements thought Gottfried, who died on April 12 at the age of 67, was the perfect person to bring the villainous bird to life in the movie and he landed the role after the filmmakers played a clip of Gottfried’s film, "Beverly Hills Cop II" to then-Walt Disney Studios head Jeffrey Katzenberg, according to The Ringer.
He turned out to be the perfect foil to Robin Williams' blue witty Genie.
As Clements pointed out, "Aladdin" was more of a comedy than most other Disney films.
"We thought Gilbert could bring some of that kind of humor earlier in the movie," he said. And Gilbert did. He was allowed to improvise some of his lines and while many made it into the final version of the film, there were others that were not included, and are likely to still exist.
In a Reddit AMA in 2016, Gottfried said: "The makers of 'Aladdin' were very open to have me improvise," the New York Post reported. "They gave me a lot of freedom but often they would have to stop and go, ‘Gilbert, this is a family film.'"
An established comedian, Gottfried also knew how to generate profits, most notably via Cameo, a video app where fans can ask their favorite celebs to send them personalized messages for $175 a video.
Gottfried earned more than $2 million by recording about 12,000 Cameo messages and about 200 hours of videos that he created before he died, The Hollywood Reporter noted.
Cameo’s co-founder and CEO Steven Galanis told the outlet it remains uncertain what will become of Gottfried's Cameos.
"Nobody posts 10 Instagrams or TikToks a day," he said. "But for people like Gilbert, this is by far the biggest social channel he’s ever had. The pure volume of content he made is longer than all his recorded hours of stand-up."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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