Comedian, author and TV host Conan O'Brien's parents died just three days apart after 66 years of marriage, according to reports.
Dr. Thomas O'Brien and his wife Ruth Reardon O'Brien passed According to people magazine.
The family reported that the father, 95, had been in declining health for some time, and also noted that the mother, 92, passed away “peacefully” three days later in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The couple married in 1958 and had a family of six children, including Conan.
The comedian credits his father with introducing him to the world of comedy, exposing him to the stylings of comedians such as Jack Benny, Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers.
“The loudest laugh I ever heard was when I was sitting next to him in the theater watching Peter Sellers' 'Pink Panther,'” O'Brien once recalled. did. “[My dad] He was often the funniest guy in the room. And when he laughed, my whole body spasmed and I almost hugged myself. ”
He describes his childhood as “a lovely mess” with so many children in the house at once.
The elder O'Brien worked in antimicrobial resistance research and was the first chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He retired in 2019 at the age of 90.
“[He] He had a voracious appetite for ideas and people and the crazy variety and irony of life. He wanted to go everywhere, meet everyone, see everything, taste everything, ”the famous comedian said about his father.
His mother was equally brilliant, attending Yale Law School and being one of only four women in her graduating class. She served as a law clerk to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court before becoming a partner at the Boston real estate law firm Ropes & Gray.
Ruth became the second recipient of the iRelaunch Pioneering Relauncher Award in 2017.
Besides Conan, the couple is survived by daughters Kate and Jane, and sons Justin, Neil and Luke. They also had nine grandchildren.
A mass funeral service will be held on December 18th in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
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