Gottfried died of a rare genetic muscle disease that could cause a dangerously abnormal heartbeat.  Journalist and longtime friend Glenn Schwartz said in a statement.
“Apart from being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing out loud. “It is done in honor of Gilbert,” his family said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Gottfried was a tough independent and deliberately bizarre comedian, both likely to clean up a room with anti-comedy and kill it with his jokes.
He first came to national attention with frequent appearances on MTV in his early days and a brief appearance on the “Saturday Night Live” cast in the 1980s.
Gottfried also often did vocal work for children’s television and movies, most notably the parrot Iago in Disney’s “Aladdin.”
“Look at me, I’m so stuck arguing,” Gottfried said scratching at the beginning of the film as his character fluttered its wings.
He particularly enjoyed making dark and dated impressions for as long as he could milk them, including Groucho Marx, Bela Lugosi and Andrew “Dice” Clay.  He often made these voices as a guest on Howard Stern’s show, prompting dozens of listeners to call and beg Stern to throw him out.
In his early days at the club at the Comedy Store in Hollywood, the managers impressed him with the then little known Jerry Seinfeld at the end of the night to get rid of the extended audience.
Gottfried was especially beloved by fellow comedians and performers.
“I’m so sad to read about the death of Gilbert Gottfried,” actress Marley Matlin wrote on Twitter.  “Funny, politically wrong, but inwardly soft. We met many times, he even made fun of me on a plane, replacing my interpreter.”  (Gottfried was very similar to Matlin’s American sign language interpreter, Jack Jason.)
“Seinfeld” actor Jason Alexander wrote on Twitter that “Gilbert Gottfried made me laugh at times when laughter was not easy. What a gift.”
Gottfried was interviewed by the Associated Press last month after Will Smith’s evening slap in the face to Chris Rock.  While he took the attack seriously, saying he could endanger other comedians, he could not resist wise cracks.
He said that before going on stage, “he just had to worry about wearing a mask. Now I have to worry about the football helmet”.  He later added: “If Will Smith reads this, dear God, please do not come to my shows.”
The year has already seen the loss of many favorite comedians, including Louie Anderson and Bob Saget.
In January, Gottfried posted a photo of the three men together on Twitter, with the caption: “This photo is very sad now. RIP Bob Saget and RIP Louie Anderson. Both are good friends who will be missing.”
Gottfried was born in Brooklyn, the son of a hardware store owner and a stay-at-home mom.  He started making amateur standups at the age of 15.
He thought he was taking a break when he found a spot on “Saturday Night Live” with Eddie Murphy in 1980. But he was given little to do on the show.
He later said that a low point was playing the body in a sketch for a funeral.  It would only last 12 episodes.
But he would find his way, doing tracks on MTV and as a favorite and hated guest on a talk show.
He starred in “Beverly Hills Cop II” and “Problem Child” and made poor films as a presenter on “USA Up All Night” from 1989 to 1998.
And he had recurring vocal roles in “Ren and Stimpy”, “The Fairly OddParents” and in many spin-offs of “Aladdin”.
Gottfried’s schtick was not always popular.  In 2011, Aflac Inc.  fired him as the duck’s voice in her ads after a tasteless tweet sent the comic about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Less than a month after the September 11, 2001, attacks on Hugh Hefner’s Friars Club Roast, Gottfried joked about planes crashing into skyscrapers and was met with applause and “Very soon!”  He responded with a particularly disgusting version of the comedian’s inner joke “The Aristocrats”, which many in the audience received as a message that he believed it was the comic book’s job to remain flawless at all costs.
“To me, funny is funny,” he told the AP last month.  “I’m a little remorseful that I’m doing it that just does not make me laugh, because it ‘s not a joke or an ad that does not work. But if there’ s a laugh, I feel like a comedian and that’s my job.”
He made many famous contributions to TV grills, his toughness and his love for the old standup style made him a perfect contributor.  He made famous hard and relentless piercings on grills, such as George Takei and Roseanne.
“Like most monsters it has a name,” Roseanne told the roast with his characteristic style, leaning on the microphone, with his arms open, shouting hoarsely.  “And that name is Rosila.”
“I will miss you, my friend, sometimes my foil, the constant pain in my side, usually from belly laughter,” Takei wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.  The heavens are much stronger with you now, I’m sure.  “Keep shaking your head and smiling, Gilbert.”
Gottfried was survived by his wife Dara, his sister Karen, 14-year-old daughter Lily and 12-year-old son Max.