David Letterman

American contemporary humorist, producer and talk show host, the winner of an Emmy as Best Host and Best Writer for a Daytime Variety Series, The David Letterman Show, 1981. He hosted a late night television talk show for 33 years, beginning with the 1 February 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC and ending with the 20 May 2015 broadcast of the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. In total, Letterman hosted 6,028 episodes of Late Night and Late Show, surpassing friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late night talk show host in American television history.

Starting on local radio and TV while still in college in the late '60s, he took a full time job at the station after graduating. He moved to Los Angeles in 1975 to do stand-up comedy and comedy writing and moved into TV, appearing as a favorite on Carson's Tonight Show.

Letterman's first network daytime show made a debut in June 1980 and he started Late Night in February 1982.

Married to Michelle Cook for eight years before they divorced in 1977, by 2000 he had been with girlfriend Regina Lasko, 40, since the late '80s. Obsessed and intense, his life revolves around his show and he's only complete and happy when he's working.

On 13 January 2000, after the show he had chest pains and an emergency angiogram was done that led to a quintuple bypass surgery, 14 January 2000. Surgery went well but was a worry as Letterman was 52 and his dad had died suddenly at age 57 of a heart attack. Two days before, he had completed a show in which he interviewed Hillary Clinton and had been extremely stressed the night before. During the show people remarked on how ill at ease he seemed, though he handled the interview with his usual poise. Within days of his surgery, the relentless workaholic was taking steps in the hospital corridor and joking with the medical staff that he'd come in for cosmetic surgery.