Tom Dreesen, the influential comedian who served as Frank Sinatra’s warm-up act for years, died on Wednesday at 86.
Dreesen’s family revealed that he had died at 5:50 a.m. in a somber Facebook post on his official page.
‘He wanted you all to know how much joy you brought him through the years,’ Dreesen’s children wrote in the brief post. ‘He said to tell you that he loved you all. May he rest in peace.’
His family did not reveal his cause of death.
Dreesen was regularly on the road as the opening act for Sinatra – who died in 1998 at 82 – for 13 years.
He was also known as a pathbreaking performer for founding Tim and Tom – widely considered the first interracial comedy duo – with fellow comic Tim Reid, 81, in 1969.
Tom Dreesen, the influential comedian who served as Frank Sinatra’s warm-up act for years, died on Wednesday at 86. His children revealed in a Facebook post that he had died at 5:50 a.m.; pictured in 2017 on I’m Dying Up Here
Dreesen was a veteran of the road who opened for Sinatra for 13 years. The iconic crooner (pictured with Dreesen) died in 1998 at 82
He was also known as a pathbreaking performer for founding the first interracial comedy duo, Tim and Tom, with fellow comic Tim Reid (R), 81; Dreesen and Reid are pictured together in 2008 in Washington, DC
Dreeson was a regular collaborator with fellow Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr., and he provided the comic relief for other musical icons, including Smokey Robinson, Liza Minnelli and Gladys Knight.
Though he was best known for his stand-up prowess, the comic also had a long list of film and television appearances, including in the Mel Brooks sci-fi spoof Spaceballs (1987), Columbo: Murder In Malibu (1990) and the Andy Kaufman biopic Man On The Moon.
Dreesen died just a week after he made his final television appearance on Comics Unleashed With Bryon Allen.
The stand-up comedy–focused comedy show courted controversy in recent weeks after CBS canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and chose Comics Unleashed as its replacement, despite the series having a far smaller profile than the late-night show it replaced.
Dreesen was a logical guest, as he had been a mentor figure to host Byron Allen as far back as the mid-’70s, according to Variety.
Dreesen’s last appearance marked his fourth time appearing on the series.
He was also a popular guest with other late-night hosts, including David Letterman.
Dreesen, who was born in Chicago in 1939, had a four-year stint in the Navy beginning in 1956, before he took up various jobs in the ’60s, including working as an insurance salesman.
Though he was best known for his stand-up, Dreesen also appeared in flims and shows including Mel Brooks’s spoof Spaceballs (1987), Columbo: Murder In Malibu (1990) and the Andy Kaufman biopic Man On The Moon; Dreesen (R) pictured with (L–R) Jada Pinkett Smith, Jay Leno and Jason Schorn in April 2001
Dreesen died just a week after he made his final television appearance on Comics Unleashed With Bryon Allen. Dreesen had mentored Allen going back to the mid-’70s, according to Variety; he’s pictured in 2021 in West Hollywood
Dreesen and Tim Reid caused a sensation with their interracial comedy duo Tim and Tom, which they founded in 1969, but the act struggled against an unsympathetic industry and weary bookers before splitting in the mid-’70s; Dreesen is seen on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1990
After going solo, Dreesen began appearing on television, starting with a 1976 episode of Good Heavens. He also had roles on WKRP In Cincinnati, The Facts of Life and Murder She Wrote in the 1980s, as well as Baywatch Nights and Touched By An Angel in the 1990s; seen in Spaceballs
In 1969, Dreesen and Reid – who was working for DuPont at the time – met while attending a Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting outside Chicago, where they were encouraged to set up an anti-drug program they could deliver in schools around the area.
In response to positive feedback from the children they performed in front of, Dreesen and Reid decided to team up, later dubbing themselves Tim and Tom.
The interracial duo started working together shortly after the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, and as de facto segregation was still widespread across the United States.
Dreesen and Reid’s gutsy teaming helped make them a sensation, but they struggled to make a living with the act thanks to an unsympathetic industry and weary bookers, leading the comedians to go solo in the mid-’70s.
After their split, Dreesen made his television debut in a 1976 episode of Good Heavens.
He went on to have guest roles on WKRP In Cincinnati, The Facts of Life and Murder She Wrote in the 1980s, as well as Baywatch Nights and Touched By An Angel in the 1990s.
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