David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer, and auto racing team owner. He hostedlate-night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut ofLate Night with David Letterman onNBC and ending with the May 20, 2015, broadcast ofLate Show with David Letterman onCBS. In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes ofLate Night andLate Show,[1] surpassing his friend and mentorJohnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history.[2]
Letterman was born inIndianapolis, Indiana, on April 12, 1947, and he has two sisters, one older and one younger.[3] His father, Harry Joseph Letterman (April 15, 1915 – February 13, 1973),[4] was a florist.[5] His mother,Dorothy Marie Letterman Mengering (née Hofert; July 18, 1921 – April 11, 2017),[6] a church secretary for theSecond Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, was an occasional figure on Letterman's show, usually at holidays and birthdays.[7]
Letterman grew up on the north side of Indianapolis, in theBroad Ripple area, about 12 miles (19 km) from theIndianapolis Motor Speedway. He enjoyed collecting model cars, including racers.[8] In 2000, he told an interviewer forEsquire that, while growing up, he admired his father's ability to tell jokes and be the life of the party. Harry Joseph Letterman survived a heart attack at the age of 36 when David was a young boy. The fear of losing his father was constantly with Letterman as he grew up.[9] The elder Letterman died of a second heart attack in 1973[10] at the age of 57.
Letterman attended his hometown'sBroad Ripple High School and worked as a stock boy at the local Atlas Supermarket.[11] In an interview, he said the first concert he attended was bythe Beach Boys at theIndiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum, when he was 17.[12] According to theBall State Daily News, he originally wanted to attendIndiana University, but hisgrades were not good enough, so he instead attendedBall State University inMuncie, Indiana.[13] He is a member of theSigma Chi fraternity, and graduated in 1969 from what was then the Department of Radio and Television. A self-described average student, Letterman later endowed a scholarship for what he called "C students" at Ball State.[14] Though he registered for the draft and passed his physical after graduating from college, he was not drafted for service inVietnam because he received adraft lottery number of 346 (out of 366).[15]
Letterman began his broadcasting career as an announcer and newscaster at the college's student-run radio station—WBST—a 10-watt campus station that is now part ofIndiana Public Radio.[16] He was fired for treating classical music with irreverence.[16] He then became involved with the founding of another campus station—WAGO-AM 570 (nowWCRD, 91.3).[17]
He creditsPaul Dixon, host of thePaul Dixon Show, a Cincinnati-based talk show also shown in Indianapolis while he was growing up, for inspiring his choice of career:[18]
I was just out of college [in 1969], and I really didn't know what I wanted to do. And then all of a sudden I saw him doing it [on TV]. And I thought: That's really what I want to do!
Soon after graduating from Ball State in 1969, Letterman began his career as a radio talk show host onWNTS and on Indianapolis television station WLWI (which changed its call sign toWTHR in 1976) as an anchor andweatherman. He received some attention for his novel on-air delivery, which included congratulating atropical storm for being upgraded to ahurricane, as well as for predictinghailstones "the size of canned hams".[19]
Letterman also occasionally reported the weather and the day's very high and low temps for fictitious cities ("Eight inches of snow in Bingree and surrounding areas"). On another occasion, he riffed that the state border between Indiana and Ohio had been erased, when a satellite map accidentally omitted it, jokingly attributing it to dirty political dealings: "The higher-ups have removed the border between Indiana and Ohio, making it one giant state. Personally, I'm against it. I don't know what to do about it."[20]
Letterman also starred in a local kiddie show, hosted a late-night TV show called "Freeze-Dried Movies" (a show in which he once acted out a scene fromGodzilla (1954) using plastic dinosaurs), and hosted a talk show that aired early on Saturday mornings calledClover Power,[21] in which he interviewed4-H members about their projects.[22]
In 1971, Letterman appeared as a pit road reporter forABC Sports' tape-delayed coverage of theIndianapolis 500, which was his first nationally telecast appearance (WLWI was the local ABC affiliate at the time).[23] He was initially introduced asChris Economaki, but this was corrected at the end of the interview (Jim McKay announced his name as Dave Letterman). Letterman interviewedMario Andretti, who had just crashed out of the race.[24]
Letterman's brand of dry, sarcastic humor caught the attention of scouts forThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and he was soon a regular guest on the show. He became a favorite of Carson and was a regular guest host for the show beginning in 1978. Letterman credits Carson as the person who influenced his career the most.[40]
On June 23, 1980, Letterman was given his own morning comedy show onNBC,The David Letterman Show. It was originally 90 minutes long but was shortened to 60 minutes in August 1980.[41] The show was a critical success, winning twoEmmy Awards, but was a ratings disappointment and was canceled, the last show airing October 24, 1980.[42]
Letterman interviewing comedianJerry Lewis in 1982
NBC kept Letterman on its payroll to try him in a different time slot.Late Night with David Letterman debuted February 1, 1982; the first guest wasBill Murray.[43] Murray went on to become one of Letterman's most frequent guests, guesting on his later CBS show's celebration of his 30th anniversary in late-night television, which aired January 31, 2012, and on the final CBS show, which aired May 20, 2015. The show ran Monday through Thursday nights at 12:30 a.m.Eastern Time, immediately followingThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (a Friday night broadcast was added in June 1987). It was seen as edgy and unpredictable, and soon developed a cult following (particularly among college students). Letterman's reputation as anacerbic interviewer was borne out in verbal sparring matches withCher[44] (who even called him an "asshole" on the show),[45]Shirley MacLaine,[46]Charles Grodin, andMadonna. The show also featured comedy segments and running characters, in a style heavily influenced by the 1950s and 1960s programs ofSteve Allen.[47]
The show often featured quirky, genre-mocking regular features, including "Stupid Pet Tricks"[48] (which had its origins on Letterman's morning show), Stupid Human Tricks,[49] dropping various objects off the roof of a five-story building,[50] demonstrations of unorthodox clothing (such as suits made ofAlka-Seltzer,[51]Velcro[52] andsuet), a recurringTop 10 list, the Monkey-Cam[53] (and the Audience Cam), a facetious letter-answering segment,[54] several "Film[s] by My Dog Bob" in which a camera was mounted on Letterman's own dog[55] (often with comic results) and Small Town News,[56] all of which moved with Letterman to CBS.
Other episodes included Letterman using a bullhorn to interrupt a live interview onThe Today Show on August 19, 1985, announcing that he was the NBC News presidentLawrence K. Grossman and that he was not wearing any pants;[57] walking across the hall to Studio 6B, at the time the news studio forWNBC-TV, and interruptingAl Roker's weather segments duringLive at Five; and staging "elevator races", complete with commentary by NBC Sports'Bob Costas. In one appearance, in 1982,Andy Kaufman (who was wearing a neck brace) appeared with professional wrestlerJerry Lawler, who slapped and knocked the comedian to the ground (Lawler and Kaufman's friendBob Zmuda later revealed that the incident wasstaged).[58]
In 1992,Johnny Carson retired, and many fans, and Carson himself, believed that Letterman would become the new host ofThe Tonight Show. When NBC instead gave the job to Jay Leno, Letterman departed NBC to host his own late-night show on CBS, oppositeThe Tonight Show at 11:30 p.m., called theLate Show with David Letterman. The new show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was taped at the historic Ed Sullivan Theater, whereEd Sullivan broadcast hiseponymous variety series from 1948 to 1971. For Letterman's arrival, CBS spent $8 million in renovations.[59] CBS also signed Letterman to a three-year, $14 million/year contract,[60] doubling hisLate Night salary.
But while the expectation was that Letterman would retain his unique style and sense of humor with the move,Late Show was not an exact replica of his old NBC program. The monologue was lengthened.Paul Shaffer and theWorld's Most Dangerous Band followed Letterman to CBS, but they added a brass section and wererebranded theCBS Orchestra (at Shaffer's request); a small band had been mandated by Carson while Letterman occupied the 12:30 slot. Additionally, because of intellectual property disagreements, Letterman was unable to import many of hisLate Night segments verbatim,[61] but he sidestepped this problem by simply renaming them (the "Top Ten List" became the "Late Show Top Ten", "Viewer Mail" became the "CBS Mailbag", etc.).Time magazine wrote, "Letterman's innovation ... gained power from its rigorous formalism"; as his biographerJason Zinoman puts it, he was "a fascinatingly disgruntled eccentric trapped inside a more traditional talk show".[62]
TheLate Show's main competitor was NBC'sThe Tonight Show, whichJay Leno hosted for 22 years from 1992 to 2014, except from June 1, 2009, to January 22, 2010, when Conan O'Brien hosted. In 1993 and 1994, theLate Show consistently gained higher ratings thanThe Tonight Show. But in 1995, ratings dipped and Leno's show consistently beat Letterman's in the ratings from the time thatHugh Grant came on Leno's show after Grant's arrest for soliciting a prostitute.[63]
Leno typically attracted about five million nightly viewers between 1999 and 2009. TheLate Show lost nearly half its audience during its competition with Leno, attracting 7.1 million viewers nightly in its 1993–94 season and about 3.8 million per night as of Leno's departure in 2009.[64] In the final months of his first stint as host ofThe Tonight Show, Leno beat Letterman in the ratings by a 1.3 million-viewer margin (5.2 million to 3.9 million), andNightline and theLate Show were virtually tied.[65] Once O'Brien took overTonight, Letterman closed the gap in the ratings.[66][67][68] O'Brien initially drove the median age ofTonight Show viewers from 55 to 45, with most older viewers opting to watch theLate Show instead.[69] After Leno returned toThe Tonight Show, Leno regained his lead.[70]
Letterman's shows have garnered both critical and industry praise, receiving 67Emmy Award nominations, winning 12 times in his first 20 years in late night television. From 1993 to 2009, Letterman ranked higher than Leno in the annualHarris Poll ofNation's Favorite TV Personality 12 times.[71] For example, in 2003 and 2004 Letterman ranked second in that poll, behind onlyOprah Winfrey, a year that Leno was ranked fifth.[72] Leno was higher than Letterman on that poll three times during the same period, in 1998, 2007, and 2008.[71]
On March 27, 1995, Letterman hosted the67th Academy Awards ceremony. Critics blasted what they deemed his poor performance, noting that his irreverent style undermined the traditional importance and glamor of the event.[73] In a joke about their unusual names (inspired by a celebrated comic essay inThe New Yorker, "Yma Dream" by Thomas Meehan), he started off by introducingUma Thurman to Oprah Winfrey, and then both of them toKeanu Reeves: "Oprah...Uma. Uma...Oprah," "Have you kids met Keanu?" This and many of his other jokes fell flat.[73] Although Letterman attracted the highest ratings to the annual telecast since 1983, many felt that the bad publicity he generated caused a decline in theLate Show's ratings.[74]
Letterman recycled the apparent debacle into a long-running gag. On his first show after the Oscars, he joked, "Looking back, I had no idea that thing was being televised." He lampooned his stint two years later, duringBilly Crystal's opening Oscar skit, which also parodied the plane-crashing scenes from that year's chief nominated film,The English Patient.
For years afterward, Letterman recounted his hosting the Oscars, although theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continued to hold Letterman in high regard and invited him to host the Oscars again.[75][76] On September 7, 2010, he made an appearance on the premiere of the 14th season ofThe View, and confirmed that he had been considered for hosting again.
Later, while still recovering from surgery, Letterman revived the late-night talk show tradition of "guest hosts" that had virtually disappeared on network television during the 1990s, allowingBill Cosby,Kathie Lee Gifford,Dana Carvey,Janeane Garofalo, and others to host new episodes of theLate Show. Upon his return to the show on February 21, 2000, Letterman brought all but one of the doctors and nurses on stage who had participated in his surgery and recovery (with extra teasing of a nurse who had given him bed baths—"This woman gave me a bath!"),[78] including Drs. O. Wayne Isom andLouis Aronne, who frequently appeared on the show.
For a number of episodes, Letterman continued to crack jokes about his bypass, including saying: "Bypass surgery: it's when doctors surgically create new blood flow to your heart. A bypass is what happened to me when I didn't getThe Tonight Show! It's a whole different thing." In a later running gag, he lobbied Indiana to rename the freeway circling Indianapolis (I-465) "The David Letterman Bypass". He also featured a montage of faux news coverage of his bypass surgery, including a clip of Letterman's heart for sale on theHome Shopping Network. Letterman became friends with his doctors and nurses. In 2008,Rolling Stone wrote:
He hosted a doctor and nurse who'd helped perform the emergency quintuple-bypass heart surgery that saved his life in 2000. "These are people who were complete strangers when they opened my chest," he says. "And now, eight years later, they're among my best friends."[79]
Additionally, Letterman invited the bandFoo Fighters to play "Everlong",[80] introducing them as "my favorite band, playing my favorite song."[81]
Letterman interviewing PresidentBarack Obama in 2012
In March 2002, as Letterman's contract with CBS neared expiration,ABC offered him the time slot for long-running news programNightline withTed Koppel. Letterman was interested, as he believed he could never match Leno's ratings at CBS due to Letterman's complaint of weakerlead-ins from CBS'slate local news programs, but was reluctant to replace Koppel.[86] He addressed his decision to re-sign on the air, stating that he was content at CBS and that he had great respect for Koppel.
On December 4, 2006, CBS revealed that Letterman signed a new contract to hostLate Show with David Letterman through the fall of 2010. "I'm thrilled to be continuing on at CBS," said Letterman. "At my age you really don't want to have to learn a new commute."[87] Letterman further joked about the subject by pulling up his right pants leg, revealing a tattoo, presumably temporary, of the ABC logo.
"Thirteen years ago, David Letterman put CBS late night on the map and in the process became one of the defining icons of our network," saidLeslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation. "His presence on our air is an ongoing source of pride, and the creativity and imagination that theLate Show puts forth every night is an ongoing display of the highest quality entertainment. We are truly honored that one of the most revered and talented entertainers of our time will continue to call CBS 'home.'"[88]
According to a 2007 article inForbes magazine, Letterman earned $40 million a year.[89] A 2009 article inThe New York Times, however, said his salary was estimated at $32 million.[90] In June 2009, Letterman's Worldwide Pants and CBS reached an agreement to continue theLate Show until at least August 2012. The previous contract had been set to expire in 2010, and the two-year extension was shorter than the typical three-year contract period negotiated in the past.[90] Worldwide Pants agreed to lower its fee for the show, though it had remained a "solid moneymaker for CBS" under the previous contract.[90]
On the February 3, 2011, edition of theLate Show, during an interview withHoward Stern, Letterman said he would continue to do his talk show for "maybe two years, I think."[91] In April 2012, CBS announced it had extended its contract with Letterman through 2014.[92] His contract was subsequently extended to 2015.[93]
During the taping of his show on April 3, 2014, Letterman announced that he had informed CBS presidentLes Moonves that he would retire from hostingLate Show by May 20, 2015.[94] Later in his retirement Letterman occasionally stated, in jest,[95] that he had been fired.[96] It was announced soon after that comedian and political satirist Stephen Colbert would succeed Letterman.[97] Letterman's last episode aired on May 20, 2015, and opened with a presidential sendoff featuring four of the five living American presidents,George H. W. Bush,Bill Clinton,George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, each mimicking the late presidentGerald Ford's statement "Our long national nightmare is over." It also featured cameos fromThe Simpsons andWheel of Fortune (the latter with a puzzle saying "Good riddance to David Letterman"), a Top Ten List of "things I wish I could have said to David Letterman" performed by regular guests includingAlec Baldwin,Barbara Walters,Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld,Jim Carrey,Chris Rock,Julia Louis-Dreyfus,Peyton Manning,Tina Fey, andBill Murray, and closed with a montage of scenes from both his CBS and NBC series set to a live performance of "Everlong" by Foo Fighters.
The final episode ofLate Show with David Letterman was watched by 13.76 million viewers in the United States with an audience share of 9.3/24, earning the show its highest ratings since following the1994 Winter Olympics on February 25, 1994, and the show's highest demo numbers (4.1 in adults 25–54 and 3.1 in adults 18–49) since Oprah Winfrey's firstLate Show appearance following the ending of her feud with Letterman on December 1, 2005. Bill Murray, who had been his first guest onLate Night, was his final guest onLate Show. In a rarity for a late-night show, it was also the highest-rated program on network television that night, beating out all prime-time shows.[98] In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes ofLate Night andLate Show,[1][99] surpassing friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history.[2]
In the months following the end ofLate Show, Letterman was seen occasionally at sports events such as the Indianapolis 500, during which he submitted to an interview with a local publication.[100] He made a surprise appearance on stage inSan Antonio, Texas when he was invited up for an extended segment during Steve Martin's andMartin Short'sA Very Stupid Conversation show, saying "I retired, and...I have no regrets," Letterman told the crowd after walking on stage. "I was happy. I'll make actual friends. I was complacent. I was satisfied. I was content, and then a couple of days agoDonald Trump said he was running for president. I have made the biggest mistake of my life, ladies and gentlemen" and then delivering a Top Ten List roastingTrump's presidential campaign followed by an onstage conversation with Martin and Short. Cellphone recordings of the appearance were posted onYouTube by audience members and widely reported in the media.[101][102]
In 2016, Letterman joined the climate change documentary showYears of Living Dangerously as one of its celebrity correspondents.[103] In season two's premiere episode, Letterman traveled toIndia to investigate the country's efforts to expand its inadequate energy grid, power its booming economy, and bring electricity to 300 million citizens for the first time. He also interviewed Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and traveled to rural villages where power is a scarce luxury and explored the United States' role in India's energy future.[104]
In 2018, Letterman began hosting a six-episode monthly series of hour-long programs onNetflix consisting of long-form interviews and field segments.[107] The show,My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, premiered January 12, 2018, withBarack Obama as its first guest.[108] The second season premiered on May 31, 2019.[109] Season 3 premiered on October 21, 2020, and includesKim Kardashian West,Robert Downey Jr.,Dave Chappelle andLizzo as guests.[110] Season 4 premiered on May 20, 2022, withBillie Eilish as the first guest.[111] In October 2022, Letterman traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine, to film a special standalone episode ofMy Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, interviewing Ukrainian presidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy.[112]
In spite of Johnny Carson's clear intention to hand over to Letterman, NBC selected Jay Leno to hostThe Tonight Show after Carson's departure.[113] Letterman maintained a close relationship with Carson through his break with NBC. Three years after he left for CBS,HBO produced a made-for-television movie calledThe Late Shift, based on a book byThe New York Times reporter Bill Carter, chronicling the battle between Letterman and Leno for theTonight Show hosting spot.
Carson later made a fewcameo appearances as a guest on Letterman's show. Carson's final television appearance was on May 13, 1994, on aLate Show episode taped in Los Angeles, when he made a surprise appearance during aTop 10 list segment. In early 2005, it was revealed that Carson occasionally sent jokes to Letterman, who used them in his monologue; according to CBS senior vice presidentPeter Lassally (a onetime producer for both men), Carson got "a big kick out of it."[114] Letterman would do a characteristic Carson golf swing after delivering one of his jokes. In a tribute to Carson, all the opening monologue jokes during the first show after Carson's death were by Carson.
Lassally also claimed that Carson had always believed Letterman, not Leno, to be his "rightful successor".[115] During the early years of theLate Show's run, Letterman occasionally used some of Carson's trademark bits, including "Carnac the Magnificent" (withPaul Shaffer as Carnac), "Stump the Band", and the "Week in Review", sometimes accompanied by a courtesy call to Carson for his permission.
Oprah Winfrey appeared on Letterman's show when he was hosting NBC'sLate Night on May 2, 1989. After that appearance, the two had a 16-year feud[116] that arose, as Winfrey explained to Letterman after it had been resolved, as a result of the acerbic tone of their 1989 interview, of which she said that it "felt so uncomfortable to me that I didn't want to have that experience again". The feud apparently ended on December 2, 2005, when Winfrey appeared on CBS'sLate Show with David Letterman in an event Letterman jokingly called "theSuper Bowl of Love".[117]
Winfrey and Letterman also appeared together in aLate Show promo aired during CBS's coverage ofSuper Bowl XLI in February 2007, with the two sitting next to each other on a couch watching the game. Since the game was played between theIndianapolis Colts andChicago Bears, the Indianapolis-born Letterman wore a Peyton Manning jersey, while Winfrey, whose show was taped in Chicago, wore aBrian Urlacher jersey.[118] On September 10, 2007, Letterman made his first appearance onThe Oprah Winfrey Show atMadison Square Garden in New York City.
Three years later, during CBS's coverage ofSuper Bowl XLIV between the Colts and theNew Orleans Saints, the two appeared again in aLate Show promo, this time with Winfrey sitting on a couch between Letterman and Leno. Letterman wore the retiredNo. 70 jersey ofArt Donovan, a member of the Colts' Hall of Fame and a regular Letterman guest. The appearance was Letterman's idea: Leno flew to New York City on an NBC corporate jet, sneaking into theEd Sullivan Theater during theLate Show's February 4 taping wearing a disguise and meeting Winfrey and Letterman at a living room set created in the theater's balcony, where they taped their promo.[119]
Winfrey interviewed Letterman in January 2013 onOprah's Next Chapter. They discussed their feud and Winfrey revealed that she had had a "terrible experience" while appearing on Letterman's show years earlier. Letterman could not recall the incident but apologized.[120]
Late Show went off air for eight weeks in 2007 during November and December because of theWriters Guild of America strike. Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, was the first company to make an individual agreement with the WGA,[121] allowing his show to come back on the air on January 2, 2008. In his first episode back, he surprised the audience with a newly grownbeard, which signified solidarity with the strike.[122] His beard was shaved off during the show on January 7, 2008.
On June 8 and 9, 2009, Letterman told two sexually themed jokes about a daughter (never named) ofSarah Palin on his TV show. These included a joke that Palin's daughter had been "knocked up" by MLB playerAlex Rodriguez.[123] Palin was in New York City with her then 14-year-old daughter Willow, and none of her other children were at the game, but her 18-year-old daughterBristol was the one who was pregnant. It was therefore unclear which daughter the joke referred to.[123][124]
In a statement posted on the Internet, Palin said, "I doubt [Letterman would] ever dare make such comments about anyone else's daughter" and that "laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is disgusting."[124] On his June 10 show, Letterman responded to the controversy, saying the jokes were meant to be about Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, whose pregnancy as an unmarried teenager had caused some controversy during theUnited States presidential election of 2008. "These are not jokes made about [Palin's] 14-year-old daughter ... I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl."[124]
His remarks did not end public criticism. TheNational Organization for Women (NOW) released a statement supporting Palin, noting that Letterman had made "[only] something of an apology."[123] When the controversy failed to subside, Letterman addressed the issue again on his June 15 show, faulting himself for the error and apologizing "especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke."[125] Rodriguez demanded an apology for implying that he was a child molester. Letterman never specifically apologized to Rodriguez.[126]
On August 17, 2011, it was reported that anIslamist militant had posted a death threat against Letterman on a website frequented byAl-Qaeda supporters, calling on American Muslims to kill him for making a joke about the death ofIlyas Kashmiri, an Al-Qaeda leader who was killed in a June 2011 drone strike in Pakistan.[127] In his August 22 show, Letterman joked about the threat, saying "State Department authorities are looking into this. They're not taking this lightly. They're looking into it. They're questioning, they're interrogating, there's an electronic trail—but everybody knows it's Leno."[128]
Letterman receiving the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors Medallion, December 2012
Letterman appeared in the pilot episode of the short-lived 1986 seriesCoach Toast, and appears with a bag over his head as a guest on Bonnie Hunt's 1990s sitcomThe Building. He appeared inThe Simpsons as himself in a couch gag when the Simpsons find themselves (and the couch) inLate Night with David Letterman. He had a cameo in the feature filmCabin Boy, withChris Elliott, who worked as a writer for Letterman. In this and other appearances, Letterman is listed in the credits as "Earl Hofert", the name of Letterman's maternal grandfather. He also appeared as himself in theHoward Stern biographical filmPrivate Parts and the 1999Andy Kaufman biopicMan on the Moon, in a few episodes ofGarry Shandling's 1990s TV seriesThe Larry Sanders Show, and in "The Abstinence", a 1996 episode of the sitcomSeinfeld.
In 2010, a documentary directed byJoke Fincioen andBiagio Messina,Dying to do Letterman, was released, featuringSteve Mazan, a standup comic, who has cancer and wants to appear on Letterman's show. The film won best documentary and jury awards at theCinequest Film Festival.[132] Mazan published a book of the same name (full titleDying to Do Letterman: Turning Someday into Today) about his own saga.[133]
Letterman started his production company,Worldwide Pants Incorporated, which produced his show and several others, in 1991. The company also produces feature films and documentaries and founded its own record label, Clear Entertainment.[139] Worldwide Pants received significant attention in December 2007 after it was announced that it had independently negotiated its own contract with theWriters Guild of America, East, thus allowing Letterman, Craig Ferguson, and their writers to return to work, while the union continued its strike against production companies, networks, and studios with whom it had not yet reached agreements.[140][141]
Letterman hastinnitus, sometimes a symptom ofhearing loss. On theLate Show in 1996, he talked about his experience with tinnitus during an interview withWilliam Shatner, who has severe tinnitus caused by an on-set explosion. Letterman has said that he was initially unable to pinpoint the noise inside his head and that he hears a constant ringing in his ears.[148]
Letterman no longer drinks alcohol. On more than one occasion, he said that he had once been a "horrible alcoholic" and had begun drinking around the age of 11 or 13 and continued until 1981 when he was 34. He has said that in 1981, "I was drunk 80% of the time ... I loved it. I was one of those guys, I looked around, and everyone else had stopped drinking and I couldn't understand why."[149][150][151] When he was shown drinking what appears to be alcohol on theLate Show, it was actually apple juice.[152]
In 2015, Letterman said of his anxiety: "For years and years and years—30, 40 years—I was anxious andhypochondriacal and an alcoholic, and many, many other things that made me different from other people." He became calmer through a combination ofTranscendental Meditation and low doses of medication.[153] Letterman is aPresbyterian, a religious tradition he was originally brought up in by his mother,[154] though he once said he was motivated by "Lutheran, Midwestern guilt".[155]
In August 2021, Letterman was hospitalized inProvidence, Rhode Island, after hitting his head on the sidewalk and falling unconscious. He favorably recalled the care he received atRhode Island Hospital in a video released by the hospital's owner.[156]
On July 2, 1968,[157] Letterman married his college sweetheart, Michelle Cook, in Muncie, Indiana; they divorced in 1977.[158] He also had a long-term cohabiting relationship with the former head writer and producer onLate Night,Merrill Markoe, from 1978 to 1988. Markoe created severalLate Night staples, such as "Stupid Pet/Human Tricks".[159]Time magazine wrote that theirs was the defining relationship of Letterman's career, with Markoe also acting as his writing partner. She "put the surrealism in Letterman's comedy."[160]
Letterman and Regina Lasko started dating in February 1986, while he was still living with Markoe. Lasko gave birth to their son, Harry Joseph Letterman, on November 3, 2003. Harry is named after Letterman's father.[161] In 2005, police discovered a plot to kidnap Letterman's son and demand a $5 million ransom. Kelly Frank, a house painter who had worked for Letterman, was charged in the conspiracy.[162]
Letterman and Lasko wed on March 19, 2009, in a quiet courthouse civil ceremony inChoteau, Montana, where he had purchased a ranch in 1999.[163][164][165] Letterman announced the marriage during the taping of his show of March 23, shortly after congratulatingBruce Willis on his marriage the week before. Letterman told the audience he nearly missed the ceremony because his truck became stuck in mud two miles from their house.[166] The family resides inNorth Salem, New York, on a 108-acre (44-hectare) estate.[167]
Dave Grohl was a frequent guest onThe Late Show and performed on the program several times withFoo Fighters between 1995 and 2014, and on its final episode in 2015.
Letterman has had a close relationship with therock bandFoo Fighters since its appearance on his first show upon his return from heart surgery. The band appeared many times on theLate Show, including a week-long stint in October 2014. While introducing the band's performance of "Miracle" on the October 17, 2014, show, Letterman told the story of how a souvenir video of himself and his four-year-old son learning to ski used the song as background music, unbeknownst to Letterman until he saw it. He said: "This is the second song of theirs that will always have great, great meaning for me for the rest of my life". This was the first time the band had heard this story.[168][169] Worldwide Pants co-producedDave Grohl'sSonic Highways TV series. "Letterman was the first person to get behind this project", Grohl said.[170]
During Letterman's last show, on which Foo Fighters appeared, Letterman said that Foo Fighters had been in the middle of a South American tour that they canceled to play on his comeback episode.[171]
On October 1, 2009, Letterman announced on his show that he had been the victim of ablackmail attempt by a person threatening to reveal his sexual relationships with several of his female employees—a fact Letterman immediately thereafter confirmed.[172] He said that someone had left a package in his car with material he said he would write into a screenplay and a book if Letterman did not pay him $2 million. Letterman said that he contacted theManhattan District Attorney's office and partook in asting operation that involved the handover of a fake check to the extortionist.[173]
Joe Halderman, a producer of the CBS news magazine television series48 Hours, was arrested around noon (EST) on October 1, 2009, after trying to deposit the check. He was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury following testimony from Letterman and pleaded not guilty to a charge of attemptedgrand larceny on October 2, 2009.[174] Halderman pleaded guilty in March 2010 and was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by probation and community service.[175]
A central figure in the case and one of the women with whom Letterman had had a sexual relationship was his longtime personal assistantStephanie Birkitt, who often appeared on the show. She had also worked for48 Hours.[176] Until a month before the revelations, she had shared a residence with Halderman,[177] who allegedly had copied her personal diary and used it, along with private emails, in the blackmail package.[178]
In the days following the initial announcement of the affairs and the arrest, several prominent women, includingKathie Lee Gifford, co-host of NBC'sToday Show, and NBC news anchorAnn Curry, questioned whether Letterman's affairs with subordinates created an unfair working environment.[179] A spokesman for Worldwide Pants said that the company'ssexual harassment policy did not prohibit sexual relationships between managers and employees.[180] According to business news reporter Eve Tahmincioglu, "CBS suppliers are supposed to follow the company's business conduct policies" and the CBS 2008 Business Conduct Statement states that "If a consenting romantic or sexual relationship between a supervisor and a direct or indirect subordinate should develop, CBS requires the supervisor to disclose this information to his or her Company's Human Resources Department".[181]
On October 3, 2009,TMZ reported that a former CBS employee, Holly Hester, had had a yearlong secret affair with Letterman in the early 1990s while she was his intern and a student atNew York University.[182] On October 5, 2009, Letterman devoted a segment of his show to a public apology to his wife and staff.[183][184] Three days later, Worldwide Pants announced that Birkitt had been placed on a "paid leave of absence" from theLate Show.[185]
Beginning in May 1988, Letterman was stalked byMargaret Mary Ray, a woman withschizophrenia. She stole hisPorsche, camped out on his tennis court, and repeatedly broke into his house. Her exploits drew national attention, with Letterman occasionally joking about her on his show, though he never named her. After she died by suicide at age 46 in October 1998, Letterman toldThe New York Times that he had great compassion for her.[186] A spokesperson for Letterman said: "This is a sad ending to a confused life."[187]
In 2005, a woman was able to obtain arestraining order from aNew Mexico judge, prohibiting Letterman from contacting her. She claimed he had sent her coded messages via his television program, causing her bankruptcy and emotional distress.[188][189] Law professorEugene Volokh called the case "patentlyfrivolous".[190]
On September 7, 2007, Letterman visited hisalma mater, Ball State University inMuncie, Indiana, for the dedication of a communications facility named in his honor for his dedication to the university. The $21 million, 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m2) David Letterman Communication and Media Building opened for the 2007 fall semester. Thousands of Ball State students, faculty, and local residents welcomed Letterman back to Indiana.[197] Letterman's emotional speech touched on his struggles as a college student and his late father, and also included the "top ten good things about having your name on a building", finishing with "if reasonable people can put my name on a $21 million building, anything is possible."[198] Over many years Letterman "has provided substantial assistance to [Ball State's] Department of Telecommunications, including an annual scholarship that bears his name."[199]
At the same time, Indiana GovernorMitch Daniels gave Letterman aSagamore of the Wabash award, which recognizes distinguished service to the state of Indiana.[197]
In his capacities as a performer, producer, or as part of a writing team, Letterman is among the most nominated people in the history of the Emmy Awards, with 52 nominations, winning two Daytime Emmys and ten Primetime Emmys since 1981. He won fourAmerican Comedy Awards and in 2011 became the first recipient of the Johnny Carson Award for Comedic Excellence atThe Comedy Awards.[200]
Letterman was a recipient of the 2012Kennedy Center Honors, where he was called "one of the most influential personalities in the history of television, entertaining an entire generation of late-night viewers with his unconventional wit and charm."[201] On May 16, 2017, Letterman was named the next recipient of theMark Twain Prize for American Humor, the award granted annually by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He received the prize in a ceremony on October 22, 2017.[202]
The Letterman Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming
The Letterman Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming (LFCG) was an American privatefoundation whose president and primary contributor was David Letterman. Its treasurer was Fred Nigro, who has appeared onLate Show with David Letterman, where he has been identified as Letterman's accountant. The foundation operated out of Nigro's Los Angeles offices. LFCG was founded in August 1993 as the DL Foundation. Since at least 2001, LFCG was known as the American Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming, until it assumed its current name, in 2011.[203]
According to LFCG's tax returns (Form 990-PF), made available by theFoundation Center, for the years from 2001 through 2011, LFCG donated a total of over $9.2 million to various foundations and other organizations.[204]
^"David Letterman, WAGO Muncie Indiana". ReelRadio. April 1, 1969. Archived fromthe original on February 4, 2005. RetrievedJanuary 14, 2005.Dave Letterman is heard in this segment edited from the 11PM–12 midnight hour on April 1, 1969. WAGO was a carrier-current station atPennsylvania State University. The voice of Lyla Whip is Letterman's former wife, Michelle, whom he calls at their apartment.
^Gail Koch. "Letterman Evolved from Struggling Radio Host to Star",Ball State Daily News, February 1, 2002.
^"Piers Morgan Tonight: Regis Talks to David Letterman". CNN. RetrievedAugust 22, 2012. Airdate June 2, 2012, Regis Philbin, guest host. Letterman: "In 1975 I did that. My wife and I did that, put everything in the truck and went to California."
^"Top 10 Things Fans Don't Know About David Letterman".AARP The Magazine. Washington, DC: AARP. August–September 2012. p. 13.9. Still has the pickup he drove to Hollywood as a young comedy writer
^abWalker, Jimmie; Manna, Sal (July 12, 2012)."How I Discovered Jay Leno and David Letterman".Slate. RetrievedMay 30, 2022.Sitting on the couch would be David Letterman next to Jay Leno next to Paul Mooney. Snacking on the food might be Robert Schimmel, Richard Jeni, Louie Anderson, and Elayne Boosler. Young Byron Allen would be trying to ignore the fact that his mother was in the kitchen waiting to drive him home. There were others whose names would never be recognizable to the public because they were not star performers, such as Wayne Kline, Marty Nadler, Jeff Stein, Jack Handey, Steve Oedekerk, and Larry Jacobson, but who would soon write for some of the most popular sitcoms and late-night talk shows in television history. All of them—all then unknowns—would gather at my home from one to five times a week because they were on my writing staff, commissioned to pen jokes for my stand-up act.
^Hall, Jane (July 14, 1986)."Late Night Letterman".People. Vol. 26, no. 2. pp. 88–.Archived from the original on July 26, 2013. RetrievedMay 31, 2022.Bryant Gumbel was not amused when Letterman interrupted an outdoor Today show special in Rockefeller Center, shouting from his own taping session above, "I am Larry Grossman, President of NBC News … and I'm not wearing pants!" ("I don't blame Bryant for being pissed, but we were invited in by the Today show producer," says Letterman. Unfortunately, nobody told Gumbel and Pauley.)
^"Kaufman Fight Was a Fake". Daily Haggis. March 6, 2010. Archived fromthe original on May 12, 2008. RetrievedNovember 6, 2011. This scene was re-created in the film "Man in the Moon" starring Jim Carrey
^Mark Harris (January 29, 1993)."David Letterman's contract".Entertainment Weekly.Archived from the original on January 13, 2012. RetrievedMay 31, 2022.
^Abramovitch, Seth (February 4, 2011)."Is David Letterman Ready to be Done with the Late Show?".TV.com. Archived fromthe original on April 16, 2011. RetrievedJune 17, 2011.Dave tried valiantly to change the subject to Stern's new Sirius deal, rumored to be worth even more than the $500 million contract he signed with them in 2005. But once again, Stern (now 57) turned the tables on Dave (now 63), asking the host, "How much longer are you doing this?" To which Letterman replied: "Maybe two years, I think?"
^Gold, Matea; Collins, Scott (October 3, 2009)."David Letterman affair is no joke".Los Angeles Times. RetrievedOctober 4, 2009.'We have a written policy in our employee manual that covers harassment', the spokesman said in a statement. 'It is circulated to every employee every year. Dave is not in violation of our policy and no one has ever raised a complaint against him.'
^"World-class facilities, faculty, and students". Ball State University. August 28, 2007. Archived fromthe original on August 13, 2007. RetrievedDecember 4, 2012.The new technologically advanced facility is named after David Letterman, the university's most prominent graduate and host of theLate Show with David Letterman on the CBS television network. Over the years, Letterman has provided substantial assistance to the Department of Telecommunications, including an annual scholarship that bears his name. Work began on theUS$21 million building in 2005, enclosing about 75,000 square feet of classroom, studio, and faculty office space. The building opened in August. Cutting-edge equipment populates theUS$1 million production complex, which includes two recording studios, two control rooms, two isolation rooms, and five editing suites. The same equipment may be found in most of the top production houses and film studios in Hollywood, New York, and London
^"Return of Private Foundation (Form 990-PF)"(PDF).Certificate of Amendment of Certificate of Incorporation. pp. 25–26. RetrievedAugust 30, 2013....That the Certificate of Incorporation was filed by the Secretary of State of New York on the 26th day of August 1993 under the not-for-profit Corporation Law under the original name THE DL FOUNDATION....Paragraph FIRST of the Certificate of Incorporation, relating to the name of the corporation, is hereby amended to read as follows: FIRST: The name of the corporation shall be: THE LETTERMAN FOUNDATION FOR COURTESY AND GROOMING
^"Entry for the LFCG"(PDF).Form 990-PF, Part V, Item 1(b) ("Adjusted Qualifying Distributions"). The Foundation Center. RetrievedDecember 4, 2012.
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