Tom Dreesen

Tom Dreesen (September 11, 1939 – June 17, 2026) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, best known as Frank Sinatra's longtime opening act. He also opened for Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Sammy Davis Jr. and Liza Minnelli.

Born and raised in Harvey, Illinois, south of Chicago, he served four years in the Navy and was selling insurance in 1968 when he met Tim Reid. Together they formed Tim and Tom, the first biracial stand-up comedy duo in the United States. After they split in the mid-1970s, Dreesen became a regular on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Chicago radio personality Vince Sanders coached Tim and Tom and handled some of the act's business for four years. Dreesen also turned up on Match Game and Beat the Clock, and acted in Columbo, WKRP in Cincinnati and Murder, She Wrote. He hosted an annual golf tournament, the Tom Dreesen Celebrity Classic, and his final television appearance was on Byron Allen's Comics Unleashed.

He backed the 1979 comedians' strike at The Comedy Store, which led to comics being paid there, and recorded the album That White Boy's Crazy (1989) in front of an all-Black audience in his hometown. He wrote the memoir Still Standing (2020) and was an ambassador for the Gary Sinise Foundation for 14 years. He died at home in Los Angeles on June 17, 2026, at 86.