Conan O'Brien Parents, Who Were Married for 66 Years, Die 3 Days Apart from One Another

Mar. 15, 2025

Conan O’Brien at the 2024 SXSW Conference and Festivals.Photo:Mat Hayward/FilmMagic

Mat Hayward/FilmMagic

Dr. Thomas O’Brien and his wife Ruth Reardon O’Brien, the parents of late night comedianConan O’Brien, havediedthree days apart. Thomas was 95 and Ruth was 92.

The couple were married 66 years andshared six children together, including Conan, 61, who credited his father with his love of stand-up comedy.

PEOPLE reached out to Conan for comment, though the formerTonight Showhost spoke about his father’s father’s death toThe Globe.

Thomas introduced his children to comedy classics like 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 aPink Panthermovie,” Conan 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.”

Conan O’Brien’s father Dr. Thomas O’Brien.iRelaunch

iRelaunch

Thomas was best known for his work in antimicrobial drug resistance research and served as the first director of the infectious diseases division at what is now Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His career spanned more than 60 years at Brigham and Women’s and Harvard Medical School where he was an associate professor. He retired in 2019 at the age of 90.

“Science has said there’s no such thing as perpetual motion, but my father was proof that that was wrong,” Conan, who shares kidsNeve, 21, andBeckett, 19, withhis wife Liza, said. “My father was in constant motion. And he was interested in everything — absolutely everything.”

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Conan added of his father, “[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.”

Conan O’Brien’s mother Ruth O’Brien.iRelaunch

Ruth, meanwhile, attended Yale Law School as one of four women in her class. She served as a law clerk on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and later a real estate attorney at the law firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston. In 1978 she became the second woman partner in the firm ever. In 2017 she was the second recipient of theiRelaunch Pioneering Relauncher Award.

A funeral mass will be held for the couple on Wednesday, Dec. 18 in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

source: people.com