 |
Tom Dreesen | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 11, 1939 |
| Occupation | Actor, stand-up comedian |
| Years active | 1968-present |
Tom Dreesen (born September 11, 1939) is an American actor and stand-up comedian.
|
Tom Dreesen | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 11, 1939 |
| Occupation | Actor, stand-up comedian |
| Years active | 1968-present |
Tom Dreesen (born September 11, 1939) is an American actor and stand-up comedian.
Dreesen grew up in Harvey, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago. [1] He attended Thornton Township High School there. While working as an insurance salesman in 1968, he met Tim Reid through a local Jaycee chapter, [2] and the two teamed up as Tim and Tom, the first biracial stand-up comedy duo in the United States. Shortly thereafter they sought the assistance of radio personality Vince Sanders, who would coach the act and handle some of its business affairs for the next four years.[ citation needed ]
Though their material is now considered cutting-edge for its time, the pair struggled to make a living together and split up in the mid-1970s. However, each found individual success: while Reid landed a major role on WKRP in Cincinnati , Dreesen made appearances on Match Game and became a regular on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson [3] and toured with Frank Sinatra as the crooner's opening act.
In 1979 he supported the strike at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood. The strike was settled and the comedians performing there began to get paid; that year, he also appeared on Beat The Clock . In 1989, Dreesen released a comedy album through Flying Fish Records called That White Boy's Crazy. The album was recorded in front of an all-black audience in Harvey, Illinois. [1]
Dreesen continues to perform today. He is also involved in philanthropic endeavors and hosts an annual golf tournament called the Tom Dreesen Celebrity Classic. [4] In 2008, Dreesen, Reid, and former Chicago Sun-Times sportswriter Ron Rapoport collaborated on the book Tim and Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White. [5]
On June 9, 2020, Post Hill Press published Dreesen's memoir, "Still Standing...My Journey from Streets and Saloons to the Stage, and Sinatra." [6]
Dreesen has appeared in acting roles in the television series Columbo , WKRP in Cincinnati and Murder, She Wrote , and in such films as Spaceballs , The Rat Pack and Trouble with the Curve .
In 1999, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. [7]
Donald Jay Rickles was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He became known primarily for his insult comedy. His film roles include Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) with Clark Gable, Carl Reiner's Enter Laughing (1967), the Clint Eastwood–led Kelly's Heroes (1970), and Martin Scorsese's Casino (1995) with Robert De Niro. From 1976 to 1978, Rickles had a two-season starring role in the NBC television sitcom C.P.O. Sharkey, having previously starred in two eponymous half-hour programs, an ABC variety show titled The Don Rickles Show (1968) and a CBS sitcom identically titled The Don Rickles Show (1972).
WKRP in Cincinnati is an American sitcom television series that features the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta. Many of the characters and even some of the stories are based on people and events at WQXI. Wilson once told The Cincinnati Enquirer that he selected WKRP as the call sign to stand for C-R-A-P.
Broderick Stephen Harvey, Sr. is an American television host, actor, writer, producer, and comedian. He hosts The Steve Harvey Morning Show, Family Feud, Celebrity Family Feud, the Miss Universe competition, Family Feud Africa, and arbitration-based court comedy, Judge Steve Harvey.
Timothy Lee Reid is an American actor, comedian and film director best known for his roles in prime time American television programs, such as Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–82), Marcel "Downtown" Brown on Simon & Simon (1983–87), Ray Campbell on Sister, Sister (1994–99) and William Barnett on That '70s Show (2004–06). Reid starred in a CBS series, Frank's Place, as a professor who inherits a Louisiana restaurant. Reid is the founder and president of Legacy Media Institute, a non-profit organization "dedicated to bringing together leading professionals in the film and television industry, outstanding actors, and young men and women who wish to pursue a career in the entertainment media".
Todd Barry is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his deadpan comedy.
John Weatherspoon, better known as John Witherspoon, was an American actor and comedian who performed in various television shows and films.
Paul Gladney, better known by the stage name Paul Mooney, was an American comedian, writer, social critic and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Redd Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Dave Chappelle, his writing for comedian Richard Pryor and the television series Sanford and Son, In Living Color and Chappelle's Show, as well as his acting role playing singer Sam Cooke in The Buddy Holly Story (1978), Junebug in Spike Lee's satirical film Bamboozled (2000) and Negrodamus on Chappelle's Show.
Gregory Carlos Giraldo was an American stand-up comedian, television personality, and lawyer. He is remembered for his appearances on Comedy Central's televised roast specials, and for his work on that network's television shows Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, and the programming block Stand-Up Nation, the last of which he hosted.
Frank's Place is an American comedy-drama series that aired on CBS for 22 episodes during the 1987-1988 television season. The series was created by Hugh Wilson and executive produced by Wilson and series star and fellow WKRP in Cincinnati alumnus Tim Reid.
Hugh Hamilton Wilson Jr. was an American film director, writer and television showrunner. He is best known as the creator of the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati and Frank's Place, and as the director of the film comedies Police Academy and The First Wives Club.
Larry Reeb is a stand-up comedian from Chicago, Illinois. He is best known for his one-liners often followed by the catchphrase "That's a tip from your Uncle Lar". His earliest recorded and released performance was in 1987.
Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known as the "Roastmaster General" for his insult comedy, his multiple appearances at celebrity roasts held by the New York Friars Club, the Comedy Central Roast television series, and the Netflix historical comedy series Historical Roasts. In 2009 the Chicago Tribune called Ross "the new millennium Don Rickles." His directorial debut, the 2006 documentary Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie, won the prize for Best Film at the Comedia film festival held at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.
Venus Flytrap is a character on the television situation comedy WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–82), played by Tim Reid. He is the evening and early night-time disc jockey at WKRP, and during the course of the series he also becomes the assistant program director.
Thornton Township High School, often simply referred to as Thornton is a public high school founded in 1899, located in Harvey, one of the South Suburbs of the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. The school is one of three administered by Thornton Township High Schools District 205. It is occasionally confused with the two other similarly named schools in the district, Thornridge High School and Thornwood High School.
Paul Mooney: Analyzing White America is a 2002 stand-up comedy film starring comedian Paul Mooney, with Joe Inscoe, Bridget Gethis, and Kate Fleckenstein featured in sitcom-like cut scenes between Mooney's regular stand-up routine.
Tim and Tom were an American comedy duo made up of Tim Reid and Tom Dreesen. DuPont marketing manager Reid and insurance salesman Dreesen met at a Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting near Chicago in 1968. They were "put together to promote an anti-drug program in the local schools" and, prompted by a comment from a child, decided to form a comedy team. The team, later billed as "Tim & Tom", was the first interracial comedy duo. Years later, Reid and Dreesen co-wrote a book about those years called Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White.
Jim O'Heir is an American actor and comedian best known for portraying Jerry Gergich on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation.
Jeff Wayne, known as Big Daddy, is an American standup comedian who has performed in clubs, theaters and on national television shows.
Francesca P. Roberts is an American film and television actress known for playing "Big Bertha" in a live action movie Super Mario Bros. in 1993, as well as Anita Craig in ABC's sitcom TV series Baby Talk, which lasted from 1991 to 1992, and Anna-May in Frank's Place.
Dreesen, Tom (June 9, 2020). Still Standing...: My Journey from Streets and Saloons to the Stage, and Sinatra. Post Hill Press. ISBN 978-1642933604 . Retrieved June 14, 2020.
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
| Other | |
