Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Calvert DeForest (1921-2007)
You probably know him better as Larry "Bud" Melman, a staple of Late Night With David Letterman and Late Show With David Letterman, making many memorable and sometimes truly bizarre appearances. There isn't much to say about his passing, other than to acknowledge it. Ken Cancelosi has an excellent remembrance at The House Next Door that says everything about what Melman meant to people of a certain age better than I ever could. RIP Calvert. RIP Larry "Bud."
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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Character actor Calvert DeForest, best known for his dead-pan appearances as the pudgy, bespectacled everyman Larry "Bud" Melman on David Letterman's late-night TV show, has died at age 85....
With his thick glasses, pasty complexion and spacey demeanor, he went on to make dozens of appearances as Larry Bud on Letterman's NBC program, assigned such oddball chores as handing out hot towels to arriving passengers at New York's main bus terminal and pamphlets urging defection to passers-by outside the Soviet Consulate.
He continued to show up on the Late Show with David Letterman after the host jumped to rival network CBS in 1993, but DeForest dropped the Larry "Bud" Melman moniker, which NBC claimed as its own intellectual property....
His last appearance on the Late Show was in 2002, celebrating his 81st birthday.
"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."
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Labels: Letterman, Obituary, Television
