Tim Allen's Father Was Killed in a Car Accident — Decades Later He Forgave the Man Who Did It

According to a newspaper clipping from the Birmingham Eccentric dated Nov. 27, 1964, Gerald M. Dick of Denver, Colo., died suddenly at the age of 35.

However, the obituary got it wrong. He was actually 40 at the time of his death. Gerald was survived by his wife, Martha Fox Dick, and their six children, one of whom was named Timothy.

Years later, Timothy Dick would become Tim Allen, a change he addressed on his website.

Shortly after he started doing standup, Tim was told by a local talk show producer that they couldn't put his full name on the screen because people would think he made it up to be funny.

"I wanted to be a comedian so much that then and there, I removed the Dick," he explained. His middle name was Alan, so he made a slight change to Allen and went on to become hugely successful.

Tim rarely speaks about his father. What happened to him? Here's what we know.

The obituary lists Gerald's cause of death as an automobile accident. In April 2025, Tim was a guest on Mike Rowe's podcast, where he revealed that his father was killed by a drunk driver when the actor was only 11 years old.

"Luckily, he was the only one killed," said Tim, "but he died in my mother's lap."

His two brothers, who were also in the car, were thrown around quite a bit but survived. The drunk driver also walked away.

Tim shared that when he found out about his dad's death, he immediately went into the bargaining stage of grief, telling God that he would be better.

The young boy promised to eat his vegetables and do his homework. His uncle told Tim to "man up" because he had to help his mother. He loved his father and said he was a great man, which made Tim question why he had been killed.

"Everybody's answer was, 'He's in a better place,'" said Tim.

Because Tim was not satisfied with the answers he was getting about his father's death, he said the pain never went away. He described the frustration he felt over the "meanness" of the universe for arbitrarily taking his father away from him and his family.

He likened this feeling to sharpening a knife, and how, in order to do that, you have to hurt the knife a bit. The pain has to come with the good parts of life. You can't have one without the other.

Following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, his wife Erika Kirk spoke at a memorial held at State Farm Field in Glendale, Ariz.

It was there that Erika said she forgave her husband's killer.

Tim posted to X about how he was inspired by Erika to do the same. "I have struggled for over 60 years to forgive the man who killed my Dad," he wrote. "I will say those words now as I type: I forgive the man who killed my father."