Dreier was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, attended Stanford University, and graduated in 1939.

During his year in Berlin he was under surveillance by the Gestapo, and he left the city one day before the Pearl Harbor attack.

He was replaced as WMAQ anchor by Floyd Kalber in 1962; he then moved to ABC owned-and-operated WBKB-TV.

Dreier moved to California in 1967, where he worked in Los Angeles for KTTV and also began a career as an actor in many films such as The Boston Strangler (1968), Chandler (1971), The Carey Treatment (1972), The Loners (1972), Lady Cocoa (1975) and The Astral Factor (1978), and TV shows, including Mannix, Kojak, Land of the Giants, Hart to Hart and Love, American Style between 1968 and 1979.

[1] Dreier served on the boards of trustees of institutions including Shimer College[2] and the Eisenhower Medical Center.