Tim Allen Forgives Driver Who Killed His Father After Being ‘Deeply Affected’ by Speech from Charlie Kirk’s Widow Erika

Tim Allen has publicly forgiven the man who caused his father’s death.

The Home Improvement star, 72, shared on social media on Thursday, Sept. 24, that he was inspired by Erika Kirk — widow of Charlie Kirk — forgiving her husband’s killer last week. Allen said this prompted him to extend the same grace to the man who killed his father when he was a child.

“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,” Allen wrote on X.

“I have struggled for over 60 years to forgive the man who killed my Dad,” he continued. “I will say those words now as I type: ‘I forgive the man who killed my father.’”

Allen concluded, “Peace be with you all.”

Allen’s father, Gerald Dick, died in November 1964 while on the way home from a Colorado football game. He was traveling with six children and his wife when a drunk driver collided with their vehicle. The driver “swerved across the I-70,” went through a median, and landed on top of the car, Allen previously recounted during a 2006 interview on Inside the Actors Studio. Dick died in his wife’s lap, and Allen was not in the car that day.

“As many times as I’d relive this — if you haven’t had a death in your family, and I don’t suggest it — it certainly changes everything, from your cells to your DNA turning a different color,” Allen said. “Every single thing in my life changed. I knew it the moment he was dead, and it was not for four hours that I found out. I knew the moment that I’ve hated November since then.”

“It was a startling event that shaped me, made me everything that I am, which I hate to admit,” he added. “It’s also made me very different, I felt, than my neighbors forever.”

On an episode of The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe in April, Allen reflected that the “pain” and “discomfort” from his father’s death persisted. He remembered him as a “great dad” and the “love of my life.”

The actor’s remarks come shortly after the Sunday, Sept. 21, memorial for Charlie Kirk, a right-wing commentator who was fatally shot at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 at the age of 31. Tyler Robinson, 22, is currently held at the Utah County Jail without bail in connection with the crime.

During the memorial, Erika Kirk shared that she had forgiven her husband’s killer just 11 days after his death. “My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life,” Erika, who shares a daughter born in 2022 and a son born in 2024 with Charlie, said.

“Our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.’ That young man … I forgive him,” she continued. “I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do.”

“The answer to hate is not hate,” Erika added. “The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”

During the memorial, President Donald Trump offered a different perspective on forgiveness, stating that Charlie “did not hate his opponents” but adding that he personally felt differently.

“I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry, I am sorry, Erika,” Trump said. “But now Erika can talk to me and the whole group and maybe they can convince me that’s not right, but I cannot stand my opponent.”

He concluded, “Charlie’s angry, looking down, he’s angry at me now.”