Alan Kalter, David Letterman’s announcer on the Late Show, died Monday at the age of 78.
Kalter’s wife Peggy confirmed he died at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut to the Hollywood Reporter Monday evening.
Kalter began his time as a Late Show announcer in 1995, taking over for the retired Bill Wendell. His first day on the job, Letterman threw him into a pool, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
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The show had a 20-year duration, with the final episode of the Late Show premiering on May 20, 2015.
“I’ve had such a great 20 years. It’s been a blessing every single day,” Kalter said in a 2015 interview as the show came to an end. “Every one of us goes through a terrible time once in a while, before 3 p.m. or before 4 p.m. But no matter what my day is like, from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. [when the Late Show taped], I laugh, I smile, every day.”
Kalter was born in 1943 in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Hobart College in 1964 before going to law school at NYU. He taught public speaking and English before beginning his broadcasting career.
“When I came home and said I was offered the job as the announcer on the Late Show, I told my wife I wasn’t sure if I really wanted it because it would really rock the boat on those commercials I was doing around the country,” he explained in a 2019 interview. “I wouldn’t be able to go away for three or four days at a time whenever I wanted to, to do that work. And my kids, who were in high school at the time, sort of immediately in chorus said, ‘Dad, this is the first cool thing you’ve ever done in your life. Take it!’”
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“RIP Alan Kalter,” Letterman show writer Bill Scheft tweeted. “A lovely man, and as my old boss might say, a ‘perfect stooge….’ ”
RIP Alan Kalter. A lovely man, and as my old boss might say, a “perfect stooge….” https://t.co/szujjPYBFN
— Bill Scheft (@billscheft) October 4, 2021
