Tom Dreesen, who opened for Frank Sinatra for 14 years and helped pioneer interracial comedy with partner Tim Reid, has died at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday, June 17. He was 86.
His children announced in a message posted to his official Facebook page that their father passed away early in the morning, noting that he wanted audiences to know how much joy they had brought him over the years. No cause of death was given.
The stand-up comedian and actor spent more than five decades in show business, becoming one of the most reliable performers of his generation with roughly 60 visits to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and more than 500 television appearances overall.
Opening for Ol’ Blue Eyes
Starting in 1983, Dreesen began sharing a bill with Frank Sinatra in a partnership that would span 14 years and come to define much of his legacy. He warmed up audiences for entertainment legends including Liza Minnelli, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight and Sammy Davis Jr. The two grew close, and Dreesen served as a pallbearer and spoke at Sinatra’s funeral after the singer died in 1998.
Born on Sept. 11, 1939, Dreesen grew up in Harvey, a south suburb of Chicago, as the third child in a poor family of eight. He began working at a young age, selling newspapers, shining shoes and setting pins in bowling alleys to help make ends meet. He attended Thornton Township High School but dropped out as a sophomore, and at 17 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, leaving the service in 1960.
Breaking Barriers With Tim and Tom
After returning to the Chicago area and working a series of jobs including selling insurance, Dreesen met Tim Reid, the future “WKRP in Cincinnati” star. In 1969, they formed “Tim and Tom,” becoming one of the first interracial comedy duos in the United States. Together, they used humor to break barriers and open doors during a time of great social change.
Dreesen and Reid co-wrote the 2008 book “Tim and Tom: An American Comedy Act in Black and White,” chronicling their experience performing together during a turbulent era. After the duo split, Dreesen built a solo career that would carry him to the heights of show business.
Television and Film Career
He was also a frequent guest, and occasional guest host, on The Late Show with David Letterman. His friendship with Letterman dated back to the early 1970s, when both performed at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood. Letterman wrote in a tribute that Dreesen had wisdom and endless stories, and that everyone admired and looked up to him. Dreesen’s final television appearance came just last week on “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.”
His film credits included “Spaceballs,” “Man on the Moon” and “Trouble With the Curve,” along with the HBO movies “The Rat Pack” and “Lansky.” On television, he appeared in series such as “Columbo,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Touched by an Angel.”
Drawing on his roots as a Chicago teamster, he helped organize a 1979 strike at The Comedy Store to ensure that comedians were paid for their work. In his later years, he devoted himself to charitable causes, motivational speaking, and veterans’ work, serving as an ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation. Gary Sinise wrote following news of his death that America lost one of its great comedians and patriots, and that he lost a dear friend.
Dreesen’s family shared the news in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. For more than five decades, Tom Dreesen brought laughter, heart, and humanity to audiences across America. A proud native of Harvey, Illinois, he built a remarkable career through perseverance and talent.