Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Fans Rally Around Conan O'Brien After His Parents Die Just Three Days Apart

Conan O'Brien
Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The comedian's parents, Dr. Thomas O’Brien and Ruth Reardon O’Brien, died just three days apart last week after 66 years of marriage.

Comedian and former talk show host Conan O'Brien received love and support from fans en masse following the death of his parents.

After 66 years of marriage and raising six children, Dr. Thomas Francis O’Brien and Ruth Reardon O’Brien died three days apart.


According to toThe Boston Globe, Dr. O'Brien's health had been failing before his death on Monday at 95.

His beloved wife, Ruth O'Brien, died on Thursday at age 92. Her obituary indicated the Worcester, Massachusetts, native had "passed away peacefully."

Their causes of death are currently undisclosed.

Both parents lived in Brookline, Massachusetts.

The comedian's father was a Harvard Medical School physician and professor who specialized in epidemiology. He was also the director of the division of infectious diseases at what is now called Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston.

Ruth O'Brien, a Worcester native, clerked for a former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court as an attorney and eventually became the second woman to become a partner as a real estate attorney at the renowned Boston firm Ropes & Gray.

The younger O'Brien's penchant for comedy likely stemmed from his father, who "made sure his children knew comedy’s classics,” including comic legends Jack Benny, the Marx Brothers, and Charlie Chaplin, according to the Globe.

The former late-night host recalled his father's love of comedy and told the outlet:

“The loudest I’ve ever heard anybody laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a ‘Pink Panther’ movie.”

The 61-year-old comedian, who studied History & Literature at Harvard and graduated magna cum laude, continued:

“But 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.”

He added:

“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.’”

Last year, O'Brien spoke with the Your Mama's Kitchen podcast and shared his Catholic upbringing and attempts at trying to make his parents laugh as a toddler.

He said of his mother:

"My mom was very much a 'straight man,' you know, she was very much a, 'oh don't say that, sit up straight, now why would you say that.' And what happens is that made me want to be really funny."

Fans sent condolences to the grieving entertainer during a difficult time.








They also shared their heartbreaking experiences of losing both parents within a short time.




In 2017, O'Brien paid tribute to his mother's accomplishments after she became the second recipient of the coveted iRelaunch Pioneering Relauncher Award.

“There were six kids, two dogs, a cat, my grandmother, a parakeet—I’m not kidding—that house was a kind of madness sometimes,” he said. “Lovely madness, but madness still the same.”

He said of his parents at the time:

“I don’t know how they worked it out, but they worked it out pretty well."
"We’re all here, we’re all alive. I don’t know how they did it."


- YouTubeyoutu.be


Our hearts go out to O'Brien, his three brothers, and two sisters for their losses.

More from Trending

Donald Trump
Roberto Smith/AFP via Getty Images

Trump Roasted For Immediately Backtracking On Tariffs For U.S. Automakers After Backlash

The backlash against President Donald Trump is coming hard and fast after he quickly announced a one-month exemption for the auto industry following criticisms of his decision to earlier announce tariffs for imports from Canada and Mexico.

Trump is now offering a one-month exemption on the steep new tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports for U.S. automakers, easing concerns that the freshly launched trade war could severely impact domestic manufacturing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Jasmine Crockett
@Acyn/X

Jasmine Crockett Hilariously Shades Trump With Trolling Question About 'Immigrant Crime' During Hearing

Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas went viral after she shamed President Donald Trump with a question she posed to mayors about immigration during a House hearing that mocked him for his felony convictions—without naming him at all.

In May last year, Trump became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes. The jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to illegally influence the 2016 election.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ben Stiller; Barack Obama
Leon Bennett/WireImage; Getty Images/Getty Images for EIF & XQ

Ben Stiller Reveals Barack Obama Turned Down Offer To Make A Key Cameo In 'Severance'

Actor and Severance executive producer Ben Stiller revealed in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he once approached former President Barack Obama to narrate a pivotal video for the hit Apple TV+ show only for Obama to decline the offer in an email.

Stiller hoped to cast former President Barack Obama as the voice of the anthropomorphic Lumon office building in the “Lumon is Listening” propaganda video featured in the season 2 premiere. Though Obama declined the offer, he reportedly responded by email, expressing that he’s a “big fan” of the show.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of Jennifer Hudson and Common at a Knicks game
@BleacherReport/X

Common's Quick Reflexes Save Jennifer Hudson From Taking A Basketball To The Face

EGOT-winning singer/actor Jennifer Hudson narrowly missed being hit square in the face by a basketball while watching Tuesday's New York Knicks playoff game against the Golden State Warriors from courtside seats.

Fortunately, her beau sitting beside her, rapper Common, diverted the ball's trajectory away from Hudson's face in the nick of time, her glasses taking most of the hit after Knicks’ point guard Miles McBride lost control of the ball.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Ben Stein as the teacher in "Ferris Beuller's Day Off"; Donald Trump
Paramount Pictures; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

'Ferris Bueller' Clip Explaining Tariff Disaster In 1930 Goes Viral Amid Trump's Tariff War

People are nodding their heads after a clip from the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off in which Ben Stein's teacher character explains the disastrous results of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930 went viral after President Donald Trump's announced tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico.

The scene features a high school economics teacher, played by Ben Stein, lecturing his uninterested students about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act—a real-life 1930 bill signed by President Herbert Hoover that raised tariffs on imported goods. The law, often blamed for exacerbating the Great Depression, has drawn comparisons to Trump’s recent trade policies.

Keep ReadingShow less