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David Letterman mini-bio:
David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, and co-owner of Rahal Letterman Racing. He is the host of the Late Show with David Letterman, a late-night talk show broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture of United States late night television since his 1982 debut on Late Night with David Letterman; only Johnny Carson, one of Letterman's idols, has had a longer late-night hosting career.
Letterman is also a television and film producer; his company Worldwide Pants produces his late-night show and the show that follows his on CBS, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. Worldwide Pants has also produced several prime-time comedies, the most successful of which was Everybody Loves Raymond, currently in syndication
David Michael Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Harry Joseph Letterman, was a florist who died in 1973; his mother Dorothy Letterman, a Presbyterian church secretary of German descent, is an occasional figure on the show, usually at holidays and birthdays. He has an older sister Janice and a younger sister Gretchen.
Letterman began his career as a radio talk show host on WXLW (AM), and on Indianapolis television station WLWI (now called WTHR) as a local anchor and weatherman
Letterman appeared in the summer of 1977 on the short-lived Starland Vocal Band Show. He has since joked about how fortunate he was that nobody would ever see his performance on the program
As the late 1970s approached, Letterman was working as a struggling stand-up comic at The Comedy Store and started writing for television shows. He wrote for the summer series "The Peeping Times" and for such shows as "Good Times" (1974). Letterman had become something of a minor celebrity by 1978, by which time he had appeared on "The Gong Show" (1976), Mary Tyler Moore's variety series "Mary" (1978), "Liar's Club" (1976), "The $10,000 Pyramid" (1973), "Password Plus" (1979) and the variety series "The Starland Vocal Band Show" (1977). (It was also revealed on the Game Show Network that Letterman hosted a pilot of a game show in the seventies called The Riddlers (1977) (TV), but it was not made into a series.)
This exposure prompted many appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962). He became so popular that he was permanent substitute host by the end of the 1970s. NBC saw great potential in the young irreverent comedian, so they gave Letterman his own daytime talk show, "The David Letterman Show" (1980), which was a disaster and aired for only a few months. At about this time, Tom Snyder was having problems with his late-night show, "The Tomorrow Show" (1973), which aired after the "Tonight Show." His problems were mostly with his co-host, Rona Barrett, and Snyder was forced off air in late 1981. Letterman, who was still permanent co-host of the "Tonight Show," took over the post-Carson slot with "Late Night with David Letterman" (1982).
In 1992 Johnny Carson made a landmark announcement: he was retiring. Many thought that Letterman would be the natural choice as Carson's replacement, but many at NBC were leaning toward current "Tonight Show" substitute host Jay Leno. The battle was very public and very vicious, but in the end Leno won out, and Letterman continued hosting the post-"Tonight Show" slot. But in 1993, Letterman made his own big announcement: he was leaving NBC for a lucrative contract with CBS to star in the "Late Show with David Letterman" (1993). The battle intensified even more. NBC claimed that many of Letterman's gimmicks and jokes, including throwing the pencil at the camera, the Top Ten List, and Larry "Bud" Melman, among many others, were NBC's "intellectual property." NBC lost, but Larry "Bud" Melman would now be called by his real name, Calvert DeForest, on the CBS show. Competing in the late night wars with not only Leno but also Chevy Chase, Arsenio Hall and Ted Koppel, Letterman consistently won over all of his competition until the summer of 1995, when Leno had guest Hugh Grant on his show to discuss his highly publicized arrest for being caught with prostitute Divine Brown and Grant cried on screen. The ratings were tremendous, and Leno has consistently been beaten Letterman ever since. | VITAL STATS | David Letterman Information:
| | Eye color:blue | | Height: 6' 1½" (1.87 m) | Nickname(s):dave
The Big Man | Notable feature(s):gap toothed grin
glasses | | Education: Broad Ripple High School. Ball State University, in Muncie, Indiana. | Family:parents Joe & Dorothy
sisters Janice & Gretchen
wife Regina
son Harry Joseph | | Resides in:new york city & north salem | | Religious affiliations: | | Political affiliation: | Personal interests/hobbies:motor racing he co owns a Indy 500 race team
he liked to collect model cars as a young boy
| Charities/Causes:he is a contributor to the charity American Foundation for Courtesy and Grooming
Funds a scholarship at Ball State University | | Other:Allegedly, he will not stay for longer than five minutes for an on-location cameo appearance in any given film, which may be why Letterman doesn't really "appear" on stage with Jim Carrey and Jerry Lawler in Man on the Moon (1999), but rather is a special-effects image, like a cut-and-paste. | | |
bratzroxkimposted 716 days ago
