“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,” Conan says of his late father, Thomas, who died on Monday, while his mother, Ruth, passed away on Thursday.
Conan O’Brien sadly lost both of his parents this week.
The comedian’s father, Dr. Thomas O’Brien, and mother, Ruth Reardon O’Brien, died within days of each other. Thomas, a celebrated infectious disease physician, passed away on Monday at the age of 95. Ruth, a lawyer, died “peacefully” three days later, on Thursday at the age of 92, according to the Boston Globe, which published an obituary of Dr. Thomas.
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The couple both passed away in their Brookline, Massachusetts home.
Thomas and Ruth were married for 66 years, and shared six children together, including Conan and his siblings Neal, Luke, Justin, Jane, and Kate, per a Bell-O’Deal Funeral Home obituary of Ruth.
Conan, 61, paid tribute to his father while speaking with the Globe.
“Science has said there’s no such thing as perpetual motion, but my father was proof that that was wrong,” he said. “My father was in constant motion. And he was interested in everything — absolutely everything.”
The former late-night host’s father reportedly introduced him and his siblings to comedy, including Jack Benny radio shows, Marx Brothers films, and Charlie Chaplin movies.
“The loudest I’ve ever heard anybody laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a Pink Panther movie,” Conan recalled.
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He said that while those who worked with Thomas — who was best known for his work in antimicrobial drug resistance research — “would think, ‘What a fascinating man,” his father “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 added.
The Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast host went on to share that his father “had a voracious appetite for ideas and people and the crazy variety and irony of life,” and “wanted to go everywhere, meet everybody, see everything, taste everything.”
“For the rest of my time on earth I will be hearing from people who want to talk with me about my dad,” Conan said. “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.'”
A memorial service for Thomas and Ruth will be held next Wednesday at St. Lawrence Church in Brookline, Massachusetts.
In addition to their six children, the couple is also survived by their nine grandchildren.