Another Chasen’s Legend Is Gone : Obituary: Tommy Gallagher, famed and slightly outrageous captain of the former Hollywood eatery, dies at age 78.

He called presidents by their first names and rubbed elbows with Hollywood’s biggest stars. He never shied away from ribbing Sinatra or kidding Spielberg in front of a crowd.

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Friends and colleagues will remember the bluster of Tommy Gallagher, the legendary captain at Chasen’s in West Hollywood. But most of all, they will remember the stories about the tuxedo-clad waiter who devoted nearly half a century to the famed restaurant until his death Tuesday at age 78.

“Tom Gallagher was a bit outrageous,” said Charles Hall, a fellow waiter for more than 30 years. “Stiffness went out the door when you came to eat here.”

Gallagher’s antics have taken on mythic standing in Tinseltown.

There was the time when Gallagher, working a VIP fund-raising dinner on behalf of then-Vice President George Bush, told the presidential candidate, “George, you know what your main problem is? You need a new tailor.”

For decades, Gallagher presided over Station 8 at Chasen’s, the “power tables” in the front of the restaurant where only the most famous of figures--among them Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin and Ronald Reagan--would be seated.

No matter your position, you did not escape the stinging wit of the bespectacled Gallagher.

Friends recall one occasion when actress Linda Evans asked for ketchup with her “hobo steak” and fries, one of the restaurant’s specialties. Gallagher turned his back to Evans and announced, in jest, “Linda Evans is having ketchup with her hobo steak. I’m ashamed. I can’t even look. I have to go into the kitchen.”

Those who knew the squeaky-voiced Gallagher said he got away with so much because of his easy air, his friendliness and his many years at Chasen’s, where he started as a waiter in 1946.

Gallagher, as he has done for nearly five decades, would stand at the front door and greet the famous guests, most often by first name and occasionally with a cunning remark.

“Only Tommy could get away with that--because he was Tommy,” said fellow waiter Joe Calabrese. “All the other captains said, ‘Yes sir, yes ma’am’ .”

Even the biggest names in Hollywood were child’s play for Gallagher. During a party for then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton, Gallagher tried to pick up the pace. He grabbed the microphone, surprising everyone including Chasen’s former general manager, Ron Clint.

“He gets up in front of the most powerful people in the world and says, ‘Steven, sit down, Barbra, sit down,’ ” Clint recalled, referring to Steven Spielberg and Barbra Streisand. “It was hilarious.”

But beneath Gallagher’s kidding was a serious, caring side.

When Nancy Reagan entered the hospital to deliver her children, Gallagher showed up with meals from Chasen’s, figuring that the food would be an improvement over hospital fare. The Reagans never forgot the gesture.

“Tommy Gallagher was a dear friend, and we will miss him,” they said in a statement through a spokeswoman.

The Reagans recalled a tender story of their own.

“Long after we were married, [Tommy] told us that when we sat in Chasen’s planning our wedding, he stood by our table listening,” the Reagans said in the statement. “Other than the two of us, he was the only person in the world who knew that we were getting married, and when and where. Unbeknown to us, he came and stood across the street from the church the day we exchanged our vows.”

The restaurant was his love--followed by gossip, the Dodgers, the former Los Angeles Rams and his family, recalled his son, Patrick. Gallagher worked six nights a week--the restaurant was closed Mondays--and he would spend Christmas Eve’s catering parties. “He loved his work and loved being in the limelight, the spotlight,” Patrick Gallagher said. “He was always catering for the rich and famous.”

Gallagher posed for pictures with dozens of big names, among them Pope John Paul II. Many of the photos--including one with former Presidents George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford--hang at the interior decorating store in Van Nuys that he owned with his wife, Audrey.

But Gallagher’s health waned in recent years, particularly after the passing of his wife, about 18 months ago.

He stopped working at Chasen’s full time about two years ago. Friends say that he also was saddened by the closing of Chasen’s in April and that he had hoped to attend a grand reopening.

Scott McKay, grandson of the restaurant’s founder, spoke to Gallagher on Friday about just such an event. The restaurant may reopen in another location, possibly Santa Monica or Las Vegas.

“He said, ‘I want to live long enough to see Chasen’s reopen, and I want to be there opening night,”’ McKay recalled. “I guaranteed him a front table.”

Gallagher’s funeral Saturday is scheduled at 10 a.m. at St. Genevieve Roman Catholic Church in Van Nuys, followed by burial at Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills. He leaves behind two sisters, three children, seven grandchildren and a great-grandchild.