Associated Press
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Calvert DeForest, 85, the white-haired, bespectacled nebbish who gained cult status as the oddball Larry "Bud" Melman on David Letterman's late-night television shows, died March 19 at a hospital on Long Island, N.Y., Letterman's "Late Show" announced Wednesday.
He made scores of appearances on Letterman's shows from 1982 through 2002, handling a variety of twisted duties: dueting with Sonny Bono on "I Got You, Babe," doing a Mary Tyler Moore impression during a visit to Minneapolis, and handing out hot towels to arrivals at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
"Everyone always wondered if Calvert was an actor playing a character, but in reality he was just himself -- a genuine, modest and nice man," Letterman said in a statement. "To our staff and to our viewers, he was a beloved and valued part of our show, and we will miss him."
The gnomish Mr. DeForest was working as a file clerk at a drug rehabilitation center when show producers, who had seen him in a New York University student's film, came calling.
He was the first face to greet viewers when Letterman's NBC show, "Late Night With David Letterman," debuted Feb. 1, 1982, offering a parody of the prologue to the Boris Karloff film "Frankenstein."
"It was the greatest thing that had happened in my life," he once said of his first Letterman appearance.
Mr. DeForest, who was given the TV name of Melman, became a program regular. The collaboration continued when the talk show host launched "Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS in 1993, though Mr. DeForest had to use his real name because of a dispute with NBC over "intellectual property."
Mr. DeForest's character, who inevitably appeared in an ill-fitting black suit and thick, black-rimmed glasses, often drew laughs with his bizarre juxtaposition as a "Late Show" correspondent at such events as the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway and the anniversary Woodstock concert that year.
His last appearance on "Late Show," celebrating his 81st birthday, came in 2002.
Mr. DeForest also appeared in other television shows and films, including "Nothing Lasts Forever" with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd.
He left no survivors.