Parents of Conan O’Brien, Die Just Days Apart After 66 Years of Marriage

Conan O'Brien arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere of Max Original Travel Series "Conan O'Brien Must Go" at Avalon Hollywood & Bardot on April 16, 2024. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Comedian and late-night television host Conan O’Brien is mourning the loss of both of his parents after the two died just three days apart.

According to the obituaries by the Bell-O’Dea Funeral Home, his father, Dr. Thomas O'Brien, died Dec. 9 at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, at age 95. Conan’s mother, Ruth O'Brien, died Dec. 12 also at their home. Both were said to have “passed away peacefully.”

The couple were married for 66 years and shared six children—Neal, Jane, Justin, Kate, Luke, and 61-year-old Conan.

They are also survived by their nine grandchildren, and 15 nieces and nephews.

Thomas O'Brien

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Thomas served as the first director of the infectious diseases division and director of the microbiology laboratory at what is now Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

He was renowned for co-founding the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Centre for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance.

Thomas helped create databases to allow doctors to respond quickly to outbreaks, directly addressing the threats of drug-resistant strains of microbes.

With a career spanning over 60 years, Thomas also was an associate professor at Harvard Medical School before retiring at the age of 90 back in 2019.

Speaking to the Boston Globe, Conan remembered his father for his humor, noting he was the one who introduced him to comedy classics such as, “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,” he recalled in the article published Dec. 12.

“[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 praised his father’s vibrant personality and his craving for ideas, people, and the “crazy variety and irony of life.”

“I’ve never met anyone like him, and he happens to be my father,” he said.

“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.’”

Ruth Reardon O'Brien

Also born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Ruth attended Yale Law School as one of the only four women in her law school class of 1956.

She notably clerked for a former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and also served as a real estate attorney.

In 1978, she went on to become the second woman to be a partner in history at the law firm of Ropes & Gray in Boston and retired after 25 years.

In a video in which Ruth received the “2017 Pioneer Relauncher Award” from iRelaunch, Conan reflected on his mother’s career and described the emotional moment she received recognition.

“I remember my mother coming home and telling her mother, who lives with us, my grandmother, that she made partner,” he said.

“You can imagine what that was like for a woman who was then practically 90 and had grown up in an era when the Irish were discriminated against in Boston. My grandmother watched her daughter, who went to Vassar and Yale Law School on full scholarships, become a law partner.”

Ruth met her husband through her brothers, who were his classmates, and the couple tied the knot in 1958.

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