Calvert DeForest
1921 - 2007
NEW YORK - The balding, bespectacled nebbish who gained cult status as the oddball Larry "Bud" Melman on David Letterman's late night television shows has died after a long illness. The Brooklyn-born Calvert DeForest, who was 85, died Monday at a hospital on Long Island, the Letterman show announced Wednesday. He made dozens 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 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."
"It was the greatest thing that had happened in my life," DeForest once said of his first Letterman appearance.
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"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."
"It was the greatest thing that had happened in my life," DeForest once said of his first Letterman appearance.
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3 comments:
I knew I could count on you to do a Larry Bud Melman post. His man on the street interviews were and still are TV classics
Rest In Peace and know dear friend, you brought alot of sunshine to so many.
At least we still have Chris Elliot, the guy under the stairs; but I'd swap his sorry ass for Sam Kinison in a microsecond.
- Paul Wolcott
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