Tom Dreesen, who opened for Frank Sinatra for 14 years and became part of the United States’ first interracial stand-up comedy duo, died on Wednesday, June 17. He was 86.
The prolific comedian died in Los Angeles, his representative confirmed to USA TODAY. No cause of death was shared.
“He wanted you all to know how much joy you brought him through the years,” Dreesen’s family wrote on his Facebook page. “He said to tell you that he loved you all. May he rest in peace.”
The Chicago native worked as a stand-up comic for more than 50 years and made hundreds of TV appearances, including on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and “The Late Show with David Letterman.”
Dreesen is also credited with helping comedians at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood, California, get paid after convincing the owner, Mitzi Shore, to do so.
In the 2008 book “Comedy at the Edge: How Stand-Up in the 1970s Changed America,” Dreesen recalled telling Mitzi Shore, “You pay the waiters, you pay the waitresses, you pay the guy who cleans the toilets. Why don’t you at least pay the comedians?”
Tom Dreesen and Tim Reid made history in the comedy world
In 1969, he and Tim Reid, a Black marketing executive from Virginia, debuted as Tim and Tom, the first biracial stand-up comedy duo in the United States. Their act often mocked and challenged racial stereotypes.
“The first time I went on stage with Tim Reid, I had never been on stage before. Nor had Tim. There were no comedy clubs, so Tim and I worked what they affectionately called the Chitlin Circuit – black-owned, black-operated nightclubs where I’d be the only white guy within two or three miles,” Dreesen told the Palm Desert Sun, part of the USA TODAY Network, in 2014. “Then we’d work all white nightclubs in the north and the south.”
Tom Dreesen says Frank Sinatra was a father to him
Around the mid-’70s, Dreesen launched his solo career and performed alongside Hollywood legends, including Liza Minnelli, Smokey Robinson, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Sinatra, whom he toured with for more than a decade.
“First of all, there was no middle with Frank Sinatra,” he told the Desert Sun. “In a lot of ways, he was like a father to me. I didn’t have a father that really cared that much where I was and what I did. But Frank would give me advice and counsel and then he was a buddy in a lot of ways. I thought the world of him.”
Dreesen made his TV debut on a 1976 episode of “Good Heavens” and went on to appear on shows like “Murder, She Wrote,” “Touched by an Angel” and “The Facts of Life” as well as movies like 1987’s “Spaceballs” and 1999’s “Man on the Moon.”
Tom Dreesen recently appeared on CBS’ ‘Comics Unleashed’
A week before his death, Dreesen made one last TV appearance on CBS’ “Comics Unleashed With Bryon Allen” on June 9. He had previously appeared three times since the show started in 2006.
Dreesen has mentored Allen since 1975, according to Variety.
“Forrest Gump” actor Gary Sinise paid tribute to Dreesen on X Wednesday, honoring his friend for serving as an ambassador for his charity foundation for the past 14 years.
“He loved our country and the men and women who serve and he loved supporting them through our foundation. Tom was hilarious, always could make us laugh, and such a good friend. I will miss him terribly. What a great long career he had in show business,” Sinise wrote.