David Letterman Is Unrecognisable With His Incredible Retirement Look

Last summer, following his retirement from the late night talk show business, David Letterman told the Indianapolis Monthly: “It’s stunning what you find out about yourself when everything you’ve done for 33 years changes.

“I don’t know what to do with my hair, either. But I’ll never wear makeup again, so that’s no problem.”

- First Pics From The New Lego Batman Movie
- The Dark Knight Voted Nation’s Favourite Batman Film
- Rowan Atkinson Says He’ll Never Retire Mr Bean

Then he added to the Whitefish Review in December: “You know what? I used to say, every day, ‘I am so sick and tired of shaving.’ I had to shave every day, every day, for 33 years.

“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. And everybody hates it. My wife hates it. My son hates it.”

And here we see him staying doggedly true to his word.

This amazing shot of the talk show veteran relaxing in St. Barts shows him grinning broadly and sporting his bushy white beard, now with a close-shaven lid to go with it.

“But it’s interesting,” he added. “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 to not shave. So the day that I shave, I’ll call you.

“I know - it’s not a good-looking beard. But I don’t even care. I just don’t care. And it’s kind of fun - well, I won’t say that it’s fun to walk around irritating people; I think I’ve proved that on TV - but it’s sort of amusing to see the reactions.”

He quit his show in May last year, rounded off by a week of stellar guests arriving to pay tribute to him from from Steve Martin to Bill Murray.

Since then he’s spent a fair proportion of his time relaxing, fishing with his son and indulging his passion for the Indy 500 as the co-owner of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan racing team.

Mr. Letterman… we want your retirement.

Image credits: CBS/AKM-GSI/Variety