Comedian, writer, and TV host Conan O’Brien’s parents have died only three days apart from each other after having been married for 66 years, according to reports.
Dr. Thomas O’Brien and his wife Ruth Reardon O’Brien passed away on December 9 and December 12 respectively, according to People magazine.
The family reported that their father, 95, had been experiencing failing health for some time, and also noted that their mother, 92, died “peacefully” three days later in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The couple married in 1958 and went on to have a family of six children, including Conan.
The comedian has credited his father with introducing him to the world of comedy by exposing him to the stylings of comedians such as Jack Benny, Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers.
“The loudest I’ve ever heard anybody laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a Pink Panther movie,” O’Brien once recalled. “[My dad] was often the funniest guy in the room. And when he would laugh, his whole body would convulse and he would almost hug himself.”
He has called his childhood as “lovely chaos” with so many kids in the house at once.
The elder O’Brien worked in antimicrobial drug resistance and was the first director of infectious diseases for Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He retired in 2019 at the age of 90.
“[He] had a voracious appetite for ideas and people and the crazy variety and irony of life. He wanted to go everywhere, meet everybody, see everything, taste everything, “the famed comedian said of his dad.
His mother was no less accomplished and attended Yale Law School and was one of only four women in her graduating class. She served as a law clerk on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, then moved on to become a partner on the real estate law firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston.
Ruth became the second recipient of the iRelaunch Pioneering Relauncher Award in 2017.
Along with Conan, the couple are survived by daughters Kate and Jane, and their sons Justin, Neal, and Luke. They also had nine grandchildren.
A joint funeral will be held on December 18 in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
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