Home Improvement and Shifting Gears star Tim Allen’s life was shattered at age 11 when his father, Gerald M. Dick, was killed in a horrific traffic collision.
“My father was killed by a drunk driver when I was 11 years old. Luckily, he was the only one killed,” Allen reflected during an appearance on “The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe” in April 2025. “He died in my mother’s lap. All of the other kids [in our car] were thrown around the car. My two older brothers were hurt … I remember walking down to my house knowing something terrible happened, even though I didn’t do it, and praying and weeping.”
The death of Allen’s father is especially poignant considering that the comedian has often been called “America’s Dad” due to his popular sitcom roles on Home Improvement, Last Man Standing and Shifting Gears.
In 2025, Allen announced that, after 61 years of grief, he’d forgiven the drunk driver who killed his dad in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk (née Frantzve), publicly forgiving the political pundit’s alleged killer.
Does everybody know what time it is? That was the famous phrase that came out of Home Improvement, the ABC sitcom that aired from September 1991 to May 1999. The 30-minute comedy followed Tim “The Toolman” Taylor (Tim Allen) as he hosted a home-improvement show titled “Tool Time,” even though he’s not at all a […]
Keep scrolling for the full story behind the death of Allen’s late father.
1. Tim Allen’s Father Gerald Dick Raised Their Family in Colorado
The future Home Improvement star was the third oldest of community service advocate Martha Katherine and real estate agent Dick’s six children. While Allen (real name Timothy Alan Dick) is closely associated with Michigan for spending his teen years there and later attending Western Michigan University, he was born and raised in Denver, Colorado.
2. Gerald Dick Was Killed in a November 1964 Car Crash
When Allen was 11 years old, his father was killed in a drunk driving crash. Allen recalled on Inside the Actors Studio in 2006 that he was supposed to be with his father on the night of the deadly crash.
“I generally would have been with [my dad],” he said. “This is one of those days I went down to the neighbor’s [home].”
Allen explained that his father had “taken six kids and my mom to a Colorado football game” for a special family outing.
“On the way home, middle of the afternoon, a guy swerved across the I-70,” Allen said, before explaining that his father “broke his neck and died in my mom’s lap, right there.”
(Allen’s mother, Martha, married her high school sweetheart two years later and moved her children to Birmingham, Michigan, to blend the couple’s families.)
3. Tim Allen Barely Had a Chance to Grieve His Dad
Speaking on Inside the Actors Studio in 2006, Allen said he had a strange premonition about his dad’s death even before he found out about the drunk-driving crash.
“If you haven’t had a death in your family, it changes every single thing … from your cells and DNA turns a different color,” he said. “Every single thing in my life changed. I knew the moment he was dead, he was dead, and it was not for four hours that I found out.”
Allen remembered having little time to process his grief since he was ordered by an uncle “to man up” and stop crying seconds after being told his father was dead.
Tim Allen in Tuesday, November 2023. Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
“He was a great dad, love of my life,” Allen recalled on “The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe” in April 2025. “Everybody’s answer was, ‘He’s in a better place.’ My first reaction was, ‘Then why are we in the s***hole?’ It never got answered. … The pain of it never stopped, the discomfort of it. For many years, I didn’t care [about life]. That whole process started me on asking questions and generally getting no answers.”
4. Gerald Dick’s Death Deeply Shook Tim Allen’s Faith
During a 2011 appearance on 20/20, Allen admitted that his religious faith was deeply shaken by losing his father at such a young age. The Toy Story actor said that his “curious relationship with God” revolved around wondering if praying harder or more often would have saved his father’s life.
“For years, I just did not like this idea of God, church,” he confessed. “[I was] still a churchgoer, but constantly a cynic.”
Shifting Gears star Tim Allen was all about his youngest daughter this weekend. Allen, 71, and his wife, Jane Hajduk, were spotted at Disneyland on Saturday, March 28, for what appeared to be a birthday celebration for his daughter Elizabeth Allen-Dick, 16. Allen and Hajduk, 58, were photographed riding several rides, including the Matterhorn Bobsleds, […]
Allen clarified that his views on religion evolved over time because he felt that “whoever built me, this is too much, too weird that it happened by accident.”
“It didn’t happen by accident,” he insisted.
5. Tim Allen Forgave the Drunk Driver More Than 60 Years Later
Following the shooting death of political commentator Kirk in September 2025, Allen spoke out to praise the pundit’s widow. Erika publicly forgave 22-year-old shooting suspect Tyler Robinson during her eulogy at a public memorial on September 21.
“I forgive him because it is what Christ did. The answer to hate is not hate,” Erika told mourners.
Tim Allen in May 2025. Jenny Anderson/Disney via Getty Images
Allen responded via X on September 25 to share the impact of Erika’s words on an emotional wound he’d struggled with for 61 years.
“When Erika Kirk spoke the words on the man who killed her husband: ‘That man… that young man… I forgive him.’ That moment deeply affected me,” the Shifting Gears actor wrote. “I have struggled for over 60 years to forgive the man who killed my Dad. I will say those words immediately as I type: ‘I forgive the man who killed my father.’ Peace be with you all.”
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