Crispin Glover

That led to roles in Teachers (1984) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984). He then worked with director Trent Harris on the third chapter of the Beaver Trilogy, entitled The Orkly Kid. In this short film, he portrayed a small town man who organizes a local talent show to showcase his obsession with Olivia Newton-John, much to the embarrassment of the local community. At the climax of the film, Glover does his rendition, in full drag, of Newton-John's "Please Don't Keep Me Waiting" from her 1979 album Totally Hot. Read Less

Unbeknownst to Letterman and the audience, Glover appeared in character as "Rubin", from a then-unreleased movie Rubin and Ed, wearing platform shoes and a wig. Rather than a conventional interview, Glover staged an Andy Kaufman-like prank. After being goaded by a woman in the audience (who some argue had been planted), Glover stated that he "knew that this was gonna happen" and that "the press, they can do things, they can twist things around". After challenging Letterman to an arm-wrestling match, Glover delivered an impromptu karate kick a few feet from Letterman while stating, "I'm strong... I can kick!" Letterman then abruptly ended the segment by walking off stage, saying "I'm going to check on the Top 10", as the program cut to commercial. Read Less

Almost no-one, apparently including Letterman, understood what Glover was doing and the interview became the hallmark of the "weird" TV guest.

Glover returned to the Letterman show twice after that, the first about a month later, and then again almost 3 years after where he participated in a more nearly standard interview, but made it questionable whether he was ever on the show before and used a variety of delay tactics explaining the incident; he did say something about it being "an interesting thing." Glover then appeared two years later promoting a record album. When again asked about his first appearance, Glover launched into a long story, mentioning meeting a fellow resembling himself named Rubin, and needing to appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson simultaneous to his appearance with Letterman. Here Letterman cut him off to talk about the album Glover was promoting, as the time allotted for the interview was more than halfway over. Glover has subsequently refused to go into detail about the reasons for his behavior on the show, other than to mention that he's flattered that fans are still speculating on the performance more than 20 years later. Glover has also mentioned that he prefers there to be an "air of mystery" about the appearance. However, Glover admitted to Mike Ryan of The Huffington Post that he personally does not do any publicity work and would only do so in an unusual approach if given the opportunity. Read Less