‘Problem Child’ Director Called Gilbert Gottfried ‘An Atomic Bomb’

On Tuesday, April 12, comedian Gilbert Gottfried passed away at the age of 67.

His family posted a statement to his Instagram account, which read, “We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert Gottfried after a long illness. In addition to 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 as loud as possible in Gilbert’s honor. Love, the Gottfried family.”

The "Aladdin" voice actor leaves behind his wife, Dara Kravitz, a daughter named Lily, and a son named Max. Many in the entertainment industry have paid tribute to the late comedian and actor, including “Problem Child” director Dennis Dugan.

The 1990 dark comedy film “Problem Child” is widely regarded as Gottfried’s breakout role.

The official film synopsis reads: “Ben (John Ritter) is a good-hearted guy who's always wanted a son of his own, but so far he and his wife have had no success. The couple adopts Junior (Michael Oliver), a redheaded hellion who quickly makes their lives miserable. Disaster follows Junior wherever he goes, from camping trips that require emergency-room visits to birthday parties that turn into Grand Guignol affairs. When Ben's incensed family tells him to get rid of the boy, he starts to wonder if they might be right.”

Director Dennis Dugan selected Gottfried to play Mr. Peabody, a flustered adoption agent, after seeing him perform stand-up comedy in Los Angeles. However, he learned that Gilbert’s on-stage personality and how he interacted with colleagues behind the scenes couldn’t be more asynchronous.

Dugan told The Hollywood Reporter that Gottfried “was the sweetest guy. You’d think that maybe he was a guy who worked in the back of a library, putting books onto the racks. He was just the nicest, quietest little guy, and then you’d say action, and like an atomic bomb, he would just explode.”

He also said that John Ritter and Gilbert Gottfried got along great on set. “Ritter was as funny and good a partner as you could imagine,” Dugan said. “If you’re on the set with Gilbert, and you’re around a shooting star, you just go, ‘Great, let me take the ride,’ and Ritter loved him.”

Although Dugan has worked with some of Hollywood’s top comedians in films like “Happy Gilmore” and “Big Daddy,” he still called Gottfried “one of the funniest guys I ever worked with, for sure.” He also recalled a time he had to defend the boisterous comedian to Universal.

“I got yelled at — this was early on in shooting,” Dugan explained. “I got called by the vice president of Universal at the time, going, ‘What are you doing? You’re shooting so much film!’ If you normally shoot 6,000 feet of it — this is when you had film — one day, I shot 18,000 feet, and the next day, I shot 20,000 feet. Now it doesn’t matter, but at that time, film cost, and it was a low-budget film.”

He continued, “So they were yelling: ‘What are you doing there? You’re way over budget on film.’ And I go, ‘Well, we’re doing a comedy, right?’ And they go, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘Well, we got Gilbert Gottfried. And when I’d say action, Gilbert Gottfried does the script, and then he just starts going. You don’t say cut. You just let him go. Don’t look at how long it is — watch the film, and see what you think.’ And so they called me back, and they go, ‘All right. You’re OK because he’s that funny.'”

Dugan didn’t have enough positive things to say about Gottfried, who succumbed to a long battle with a genetic heart condition on Tuesday, April 12.

Dugan recalled, “He was just a wonderful guy to work with — completely committed, and when he started acting, you’d think he should be committed because he would just go as crazy as you possibly can.”

The esteemed director also added that working with Gottfried helped him direct future comedies, such as “Grown Ups.”

“Working with him really helped me later on,” Dugan explained. “Going to ‘Grown Ups’ was a great example because we’d shoot a scene with those five guys and then start rolling, and then they would just start yakking. I knew from working with Gilbert, if there’s a fire going, just throw kindling onto it. Because you can shout out stuff to them in the middle of it — ‘Try this, try that’ — and that was the same with him. He would do anything you asked, plus 3,000 times more.”