Tom Dreesen, the comedian who opened for Frank Sinatra, died at 86. His family announced the death on Facebook, days after his final TV appearance on Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed.
That last appearance came a week before he died, closing a career that stretched from the late 1960s to more than 500 national television appearances. Dreesen had become one of the more durable faces in stand-up television, and the timing of his final set makes the loss feel immediate, not archival.
Frank Sinatra and 14 years
Dreesen began performing alongside Frank Sinatra in 1983 and spent the next 14 years touring as Sinatra’s opening act. He also appeared at Sinatra’s final concert in 1995, a detail that puts his career next to one of the longest-running mainstream bookings in American entertainment.
Before that run, he had launched his comedy career in the late 1960s with Tim Reid in Tim and Tom, the first biracial stand-up comedy duo in the United States. He also opened for Liza Minnelli, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, and Sammy Davis Jr. in the mid-1970s, building the kind of résumé that kept him working across clubs, theaters, and TV for decades.
David Letterman tribute
On Wednesday, David Letterman wrote on Instagram, “Tom was the first comedian I met at Comedy Store in 1975. We became friends immediately” and added, “He had wisdom and endless stories. Everyone admired him, looked up to him and wondered if he ever stopped talking. He never did, he never will. We love him for that. We’ll miss the stories. God bless you Tom.” The official Comics Unleashed Instagram account also paid tribute, calling him “a cherished part of the Comics Unleashed family.”
The family’s post did not reveal a cause of death, and the Comics Unleashed tribute noted his health struggles while pointing to his final appearance. That leaves the timeline clear — a television set, a death announcement, and tributes from the people who worked with him — but the reason for his death is still not part of the record.
