AAP Entertainment

Comedy trailblazer who opened for Sinatra dies at 86

Jun 18, 2026

Comedian Tom Dreesen in 2011 — Tom Dreesen helped form a pioneering comedy duo before spending years as a successful solo act. -AP

Tom Dreesen, who along with partner Tim Reid formed one of America's first interracial stand-up comedy duos and later spent years as Frank Sinatra's opening act, has died at age 86.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

Dreesen died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles, according to publicist Lori De Waal.

A cause of death was not provided.

After meeting in Chicago, Dreesen and Reid, who is Black, formed Tim and Tom in 1969.

Against a backdrop of simmering racial tension, they used humour to address social issues and promote understanding between audiences of different backgrounds.

They worked together until the mid-1970s.

Reid went on to solo success playing DJ Venus Flytrap on the popular TV sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, where Dreesen was a guest star.

After splitting with Reid, Dreesen honed a solo comedy act, making more than 500 national TV appearances, including 60 visits to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

He also was a frequent guest and sometime guest host on The Late Show with David Letterman, whom he befriended in the early 1970s when they both worked at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles.

Dreesen was Sinatra's opening act for 14 years and became close with the entertainer.

"If he loved you, he worshipped the ground you walked on," Dreesen told The Desert Sun newspaper in 2014.

"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."

Dressen also toured with Sinatra's fellow Rat Pack member Sammy Davis Jr, as well as Liza Minnelli, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight and Tony Orlando.

In 2008, he co-wrote the book Tim and Tom: An American Comedy Act in Black and White and in 2020 he authored his memoir.

Dreesen acted in such TV shows as Columbo, Murder, She Wrote, and Touched by an Angel, and in films including Spaceballs, Man on the Moon, and The Rat Pack.

He was born in 1939 in Chicago and raised as one of eight children.

He enlisted in the US Navy at 17 and after getting out in 1960 he returned home to work a series of jobs, including selling insurance.

Dreesen is survived by daughters Amy and Jennifer from his marriage to Maryellen Subock, which ended in divorce in 1984, as well as seven grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his son Tommy.