The parents of late night host Conan O’Brien have died just four days apart.
Conan, who has been hosting the hilarious The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien on NBC for years is going through a heart break like no other.
Just days ago on Monday December 9, Dr Thomas O’Brien, 95, passed away after ‘his health had been failing’, as per The Boston Globe.
Then, on Thursday 12 December, his mother Ruth, 92, died ‘peacefully’ at home.
The pair had been married for 66 years and went on to have six children together, including 61-year-old O’Brien, and nine grandchildren.
The Bell-O’Dea Funeral Home in Brookline, Mass wrote an obituary for Ruth, which read: “O’Brien, Ruth Reardon of Brookline passed away peacefully on December 12th, 2024, at age 92. Beloved wife of sixty-six years to Thomas Francis O’Brien, M.D., who passed away on December 9th, 2024.”
Thomas was a world-renowned microbiologist who campaigned for antimicrobial resistance strains of bacteria, long before it was widely known to the public.
Ruth served as the vice president of the student government and became the second woman to be a partner at the law firm Ropes & Gray.
She met Thomas in 1958 through her brothers, who were his classmates, and the rest was history.
O’Brien has been dealing with a heartbreaking time, and paid tribute to his dad in an interview with the Boston Globe, which was published on Thursday, saying: “Science has said there’s no such thing as perpetual motion, but my father was proof that that was wrong.
“My father was in constant motion. And he was interested in everything – absolutely everything … The loudest I’ve ever heard anybody laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a Pink Panther movie … He was often the funniest guy in the room. And when he would laugh, his whole body would convulse and he would almost hug himself.
“For the rest of my time on earth I will be hearing from people who want to talk with me about my dad. I’ve never met anyone like him, and he happens to be my father.
“If I met him randomly in a hotel lobby, I’d think: ‘Who the hell is this guy? He’s the most interesting person I’ve ever met’.”
As for his mother, he previously explained a hilarious memory he had of her at a Christmas party involving Jim Carrey.
Speaking to Ryan Tubridy on the Virgin Radio show earlier this year, he said: “Years and years ago I had a Christmas party at my house.
“This was at the height of Jim Carrey mania, you know, he was coming off of his fourth massive hit film, and it was like The Beatles … Everywhere Jim Carrey went there was a riot …
“Out of the corner of my eye, I see my mother having a long chat with Jim Carrey, and I got nervous. When the party was over, I said: ‘Mom, what were you talking to that man about? Jim?’
“And she said: ‘Oh … he told me that he’s a comedian, and I told him: ‘Well my son’s had his difficulties but he just keeps at it, and eventually made it. So if you just keep at it Jim, you’re gonna make it too’.
“And I said to her: ‘Mom, I want you to go home to Boston and tell everyone you told Jim Carrey to keep at it!”
Thomas and Ruth will have a shared funeral in Boston on December 18.
