Tom Dreesen, a stand-up comedian whose career took him from suburban Chicago to national television and the concert stage with Frank Sinatra, died on June 17, 2026, at age 86. His publicist, Lori De Waal, told the Associated Press that he died at his Los Angeles home. She gave no cause of death. The announcement came just days after Dreesen appeared on television in Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.
Born in Chicago on September 11, 1939, Dreesen grew up in Harvey, Illinois, in a family of eight children. He joined the Navy as a teenager and returned to the Chicago area after leaving the service in 1960. He worked several jobs there, including selling insurance. The Chicago area was also where he met Tim Reid, the performer with whom he would make his first lasting mark on American comedy.
Dreesen and Reid began working together as Tim and Tom in 1969. The two brought different experiences to the stage, and their partnership gave them room to talk about race together in front of an audience. They were among the early interracial stand-up acts in the United States. Their comedy addressed social tensions directly and invited audiences to laugh at assumptions that people made about one another. They worked together into the mid-1970s, then went on to careers that kept them in different corners of television.
Reid became familiar to sitcom viewers as Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati, a show on which Dreesen also appeared. Dreesen concentrated on stand-up and became a regular presence on late-night television. The Associated Press counted more than 500 national television appearances across his career, including 60 on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. He also appeared frequently with David Letterman, whom he knew from their time at the Comedy Store, and sometimes filled in as host.
Dreesen reached another audience through his years opening for Sinatra. He spent 14 years in that role, performing his own comedy before Sinatra came out to sing. Dreesen later remembered Sinatra as both a friend and a source of advice. He also toured with performers including Sammy Davis Jr., Gladys Knight and Smokey Robinson. By then, audiences might recognize him from late-night television, a concert bill or an acting appearance, depending on where they had first seen him.
His acting work ranged from television episodes of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote to film appearances in Spaceballs and Man on the Moon. He also wrote about the experiences behind his stage career. In 2008 he revisited his partnership with Reid in a book about Tim and Tom. A later memoir gave him room to tell the story of his own life and work. Away from entertainment, he supported veterans’ causes and served as an ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation.
The tributes after his death reflected those different parts of his career. Gary Sinise remembered a friend and a supporter of veterans. Filmmaker Mike Binder recalled how discovering a Tim and Tom record had influenced him. Their memories reached back to different points in a career that was still going in the week before Dreesen died.
Sources include Associated Press reporting and Recovered Teknolojibura article.
