Other notable deaths

CALVERT DEFOREST, 85 Letterman sidekick

Calvert DeForest, the white-haired, bespectacled nebbish who gained cult status as the oddball Larry "Bud" Melman on David Letterman's late night television shows, died Monday in New York, Mr. Letterman's Late Show announced Wednesday.

He made dozens of appearances on Mr. 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 hot towels to arrivals at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Mr. DeForest was the first face to greet viewers when Mr. Letterman's NBC show debuted on Feb. 1, 1982, offering a parody of the prologue to the Boris Karloff film Frankenstein.

The collaboration continued when the talk show host launched the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS in 1993, though Mr. DeForest had to use his real name because of a dispute with NBC over "intellectual property."