By Movieguide® Staff
Tom Dreesen, the stand-up comedian who climbed from a childhood of grinding poverty in Harvey, Illinois, to become Frank Sinatra’s opening act for 13 years, died Tuesday at 86.
“This morning America lost one of our great comedians and patriots, and I lost a dear friend,” actor Gary Sinise wrote on X. “He was a special person, a U.S. Navy veteran with a tremendously charitable heart.”
Born September 11, 1939, Dreesen was the third of eight children. He grew up in conditions that could have buried him — shining shoes in South Side Chicago saloons to help feed his siblings, sleeping in a shack, navigating a home shadowed by alcoholism. He joined the Navy at 17, and the discipline that came with it set the course for everything that followed.
His path to comedy started in an unlikely place: a Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting near Chicago in 1968, where he was paired with Tim Reid to develop an anti-drug program for elementary school students. The two clicked, and what began as civic service became something historic.
Dreesen and Reid formed Tim and Tom — America’s first and only Black and white comedy team. During a time when race riots still scarred American cities, they performed together from 1971 to 1975, trading jokes across a divide most people were still afraid to cross.
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After the act dissolved, Dreesen built a solo career that made him a late-night fixture. He made over 500 national television appearances, including more than 60 on The Tonight Show. David Letterman counted him as one of his favorite guests and handed Dreesen the reins to host more than once in his absence.
The chapter that defined him most — at least in the public imagination — was his 13-year run opening for Frank Sinatra. He traveled the world with the Chairman of the Board and learned what it meant to perform at the highest level of the business. That relationship became the subject of his one-man show, The Man Who Made Sinatra Laugh, and his 2020 memoir Still Standing…My Journey from Streets and Saloons to the Stage, and Sinatra, published by Post Hill Press.
The faith woven through his life was no performance. Dreesen grew up a devout Catholic in Harvey and carried that faith across a 50-year career that took him from neighborhood taverns to concert halls. He and Sinatra spoke openly about faith — a detail Dreesen returned to often when reflecting on what the friendship meant to him.
His heart for service extended well beyond the stage. For 14 years, Dreesen served as an ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation, lending his time and name to the organization’s work on behalf of veterans, first responders, and their families.
“He loved our country and the men and women who serve,” Sinise wrote, “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.”
Sinise closed his tribute the way Dreesen himself might have — warmly, without sentiment for its own sake. “Thank you, Tom,” he wrote. “God Bless you my friend. Rest in Peace brother.”
Dreesen was 86.
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