But after he stepped away from The Late Show in 2015, Letterman started sporting a look no one saw coming: a thick, white beard that gave him a striking resemblance to Santa Claus.
David Letterman always had a knack for leaving a lasting impression, and his final episode of The Late Show was no exception. When he stepped away from his iconic desk in 2015, he did it with grace and a touch of humor, closing out more than three decades of late-night television not with a dramatic fanfare, but with what could be called a “soft bang”— a celebration of the people who made the show what it was.
That night was typical Letterman: segments, jokes, and music, except it had a hint of finality to it. The beloved host spent most of his last moments on air doing what he did best — giving credit where it was due, expressing heartfelt thanks to the crew, his guests, and the fans who had supported him over the years.
He went out not with a loud fart, but with a class act, proving once again why he was one of the true masters of his craft.
Sage-like figure
It’s only when he left that many realized just how much they would miss him. For generations, Letterman had been a staple of late-night TV, the man who followed in Johnny Carson’s footsteps and somehow made that coveted time slot even more comfortable and genuinely funny. Like Carson before him, Letterman had the rare ability to make every interview feel like a casual chat, even when hilarity ensued.
But all of a sudden, he was gone from the airwaves, and late-night television felt a little less spontaneous, a little less raw.
But just because David Letterman said goodbye to the daily grind of television didn’t mean he vanished entirely. In fact, when he re-emerged, it was with a look that took many by surprise. Gone was the familiar clean-shaven face and perfectly coiffed hair, replaced instead by a scruffy, snowy white beard that seemed to transform him into a sage-like figure.
I’m not entirely sure that the average person would recognize him if they bumped into him on the street or saw this TV giant out for a jog. Even though many know that David has grown out his beard, it has, along with his aging, created a completely different image than the one we saw on television for decades.
Strike beard
The first shock for many came when new photos of the former Late Show host revealed a dramatic post-retirement transformation. Images from 2016, when Letterman was spotted jogging in St. Barts, showed a bald, bearded, and unrecognizably casual man, a stark contrast from the clean-cut TV personality fans were used to seeing.
However, this wasn’t the first time Letterman had left his razor untouched. Back in 2007-2008, the Writers Guild of America strike was a major event that affected nearly all late-night talk shows. Many hosts put their shows on hold during that period, but David Letterman chose to pay his entire staff’s salaries out of his own pocket until the end of the year. In solidarity with the strikers, he also joined other hosts in growing a ”strike beard.”
But in the summer of 2008, Dave’s scruffy look finally met a razor in a memorable episode, a moment that still brings a smile to many fans’ faces today.
But that 2008 beard was nothing compared to the facial hair David sports today.
It seems that he decided to embrace a new look the moment he signed off from the Late Show. Just four months after his final episode, the beard was thicker than ever. At the time, he explained to Whitefish Review that he was simply ”sick and tired of shaving.”
His wife hates it
Today, the post-retirement beard has become something of an enigma itself. Some joke that he looked like Santa Claus or a retired sea captain, while others saw it as an emblem of freedom.
But it wasn’t just about letting go of the razor; it was a reflection of Letterman’s choice to let go of all the formalities and expectations that had defined his appearance for so many years.
”I had to shave every day — every day — for 33 years,” he said. ”And even before that when I was working on local TV. And I just thought, the first thing I will do when I am not on TV is stop shaving.”
However, not everyone appreciates his new look.
”Everybody hates it,” Letterman explained. ”My wife hates it. 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.”
David Letterman today
David even joked that the more people urged him to shave, the less likely he was to do it.
The New York Post even consulted external experts to analyze David Letterman’s new look more deeply. The paper spoke with Douglas LaBier, director of the Center for Progressive Development, who shared his perspective on why he believes Letterman has made such a drastic change in appearance.
According to LaBier, being so visible, recognizable, and often obsessed over can force public figures like Letterman to fit into a very stuffy mold.
“Who you really are is not that external role,” he explained. “That external role brings you external success and material success, but that’s often at the expense of the person you feel you are inside . . . and you need to deal with that in some way.”
