Everyone's creeped out by Letterman's bushy beard — and he enjoys it

The Associated Press
December 17, 2015 at 7:58PM
David Letterman speaks at his alma mater, Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., Nov. 30, 2015.
David Letterman speaks at his alma mater, Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., Nov. 30, 2015. (New York Times/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

NEW YORK — David Letterman seems to be enjoying the reaction to his long, white beard.

Upon his retirement from television last May, the former "Late Show" host took advantage of the opportunity to quit shaving, and the impressively bushy result has been on display in the few public appearances he's made.

"Everybody hates it," Letterman conceded in an interview with the Whitefish Review, a literary journal based in Montana, where he has a home.

"My wife hates it," he said. "My son hates it. But it's interesting. I've kind of developed a real creepy look with it that I'm sort of enjoying. And I can tell that people are off-put by it. And the more people implore me to shave, the stronger my resolve is not to shave."

Letterman said he braced himself for some sort of emotional reaction when Stephen Colbert took over his old job, but it never came.

His biggest goal now: making his 12-year-old son laugh.

David Letterman speaks at his alma mater, Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., Nov. 30, 2015.
David Letterman speaks at his alma mater, Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., Nov. 30, 2015. (New York Times/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
about the writer

about the writer

More from Minnesota Star Tribune

See More
card image
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS/The Minnesota Star Tribune

The "winners" have all been Turkeys, no matter the honor's name.

In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in rece