Tom Dreesen

Thomas Eugene Dreesen was born on September 11, 1939, and was raised in Harvey, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago (the Associated Press gave his birthplace as Chicago). He was the third of eight children of Glenore Dreesen, a waitress, and Walter Dreesen, who worked for Acme Steel and played trumpet in a band. The family lived in extreme poverty, at one point in a railroad-car-shaped shack behind a factory, and both parents struggled with alcoholism; his mother eventually stopped drinking.

As a boy he shined shoes in South Side taverns and caddied at golf courses to help feed his siblings. He said his uncle Frank, who told jokes from behind the bar of his tavern, first showed him the power of making a room laugh. Late in life Dreesen revealed to the Chicago Tribune that he had learned at 12 that his biological father was Frank Polizzi, the tavern owner married to his mother's sister, a secret he kept for more than half a century.

Dreesen attended Thornton Township High School in Harvey but did not graduate. He remained proud of the school and later raised money for it. At 17 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served four years; he said the Navy was the first place he ate three meals a day and felt equal to his peers. He left the service around 1960 and returned to Illinois.

After the Navy, Dreesen worked as a concrete laborer and insurance salesman. In 1968 he met Tim Reid through the Jaycees, where the two gave drug-education talks in local schools. Encouraged by students, they formed Tim and Tom in 1969, widely credited as the first interracial stand-up comedy duo in America. They played Chicago rooms such as Mister Kelly's, the Blue Max and the Playboy Clubs before splitting in the mid-1970s.

In Los Angeles Dreesen lived for a time in an abandoned car while working his way into the Comedy Store, alongside David Letterman, Jay Leno, Robin Williams, Gallagher and Michael Keaton. In 1979 he helped lead the six-week Comedy Store strike that won comedians pay for their sets; he did not return to the club for decades afterward.

A triumphant Tonight Show debut led to regular network work. Reported counts of his Carson appearances vary (60 or 61 in his own and press accounts; LateNighter counted at least 28), and he appeared 42 times across Letterman's NBC and CBS shows, guest hosting the Late Show in 2003. He also appeared on Match Game, Beat the Clock, Leno's Tonight Show, Politically Incorrect and both Late Late Shows. Introduced to Sinatra's lawyer Mickey Rudin, he began opening for Frank Sinatra in 1983 and toured with him for 13 to 14 years, as well as opening for Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Tony Orlando, Liza Minnelli and Sammy Davis Jr.

His acting credits include Good Heavens (1976), WKRP in Cincinnati, The Facts of Life, Columbo (Murder in Malibu), Murder, She Wrote and Touched by an Angel, and the films Spaceballs, Man on the Moon, The Rat Pack, Lansky and Trouble with the Curve. After Sinatra's death he toured the autobiographical show Shoeshines to Sinatra (later The Man Who Made Sinatra Laugh), worked as a motivational speaker, and in 2026 launched the podcast Who's Tom Dreesen?. His final television appearance was on Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen on June 9, 2026.

Dreesen married Maryellen Subock in 1958. They had three children, Amy, Tom (Tommy) and Jennifer, and divorced in 1984. His son Tommy died before him. He had seven grandchildren. Long divorced, he lived in Sherman Oaks, California, on Benefit Street. He was a devoted golfer, the permanent master of ceremonies of golf's Celebrity Tour, and a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan who often led the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field. He was seriously ill with COVID-19 in 2020.

Dreesen often said that his hardscrabble childhood taught him that you only deserve in life what you work for. He saw comedy as a way to bridge racial divides, beginning with Tim and Tom's performances for Black, white and mixed audiences in the late 1960s. Haunted by the 1979 suicide of fellow comic Steve Lubetkin after the Comedy Store strike, he spent years speaking to comedians about insecurity, addiction and self-talk, saying fame does not cure inner pain. He was also a strong supporter of veterans and the military,.

Dreesen is remembered as a pioneer of integrated stand-up comedy, a champion of fair pay for comedians, and one of the great opening acts and raconteurs in American show business. David Letterman called him a born storyteller with a good heart, and Gary Sinise described him as one of America's great comedians and patriots. His generosity to younger comics, including Byron Allen, whom he mentored from 1975, and his decades of unpaid charity work were central themes of the tributes that followed his death.

In 1999 Dreesen received a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. He was honored by the Chicago Cubs, throwing out a ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley Field in 2019. He served 14 years as an ambassador of the Gary Sinise Foundation.

Comedy album: That White Boy's Crazy (Flying Fish Records, 1989), recorded before an all-Black audience in Harvey, Illinois. Books: Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White (with Tim Reid and Ron Rapoport, University of Chicago Press, 2008) and Still Standing...: My Journey from Streets and Saloons to the Stage, and Sinatra (Post Hill Press, 2020, with Darren Grubb and Johnny Russo, foreword by David Letterman). Stage: Shoeshines to Sinatra, later The Man Who Made Sinatra Laugh. Podcast: Who's Tom Dreesen? (2026).

Dreesen died early on the morning of June 17, 2026, in Los Angeles, at the age of 86. His children announced the death on his Facebook page, saying he wanted fans to know how much joy they had brought him. The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times reported that he died at his home; the Chicago Tribune reported that he died in a California hospital after fighting cancer. The family did not publicly state a cause. A memorial service was held on July 9, 2026, at Forest Lawn in Los Angeles, followed by a gathering at Lakeside Country Club, with David Letterman as emcee. Place of burial has not been made public.