On the “Late Night with David Letterman” show, who portrayed Larry “Bud” Melman?

Calvert Grant DeForest (7/23/21 – 3/19/07) was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a physician father and a former-actress mother. He was hired to act naturally, as a character named Larry “Bud” Melman, on Letterman’s new television program.

Between 1972 and 1982, he appeared in five films, and appeared in “King of the Zs”, a film project by New York University Students Stephen Winer and Karl Tiedemann. When they became writers for the fledgling Letterman program, they invited Mr. DeForest to join them. He appeared in the very first moments of the show, on February 1, 1982, in a spoof of the prologue to the 1931 film, “Frankenstein”.

Although his bits were sometimes scripted and/or filmed in advance, as Larry “Bud” Melman, Mr. DeForest had no role description. Often, he simply was given a task to perform, like handing out hot towels to travelers at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and improvising conversation. He would be given written responses to questions from the audience, heckle the audience or Letterman, or wander about on stage during a portion of the show, and then wander off.

When Letterman’s show changed networks and names, "The Late Show" was prohibited from using the Melman name, so Mr. DeForest did exactly what he had previously done, but using his own name.