Conan O’Brien pays tribute to his parents who died within days of each other

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Conan O’Brien is remembering his recently deceased parents.

In an interview with the Boston Globe, the former late night television host talked about his mother, Ruth Reardon O’Brien, who died last Thursday, and Dr. Thomas F. O’Brien, who preceded his wife in death three days earlier.

“My parents complemented each other very well,” their son told the publication.

The younger O’Brien reminisced about his mother, who pursued her legal career while raising him and his five siblings, and his father, a doctor who “spoke with physicians in developing countries about the dangers of antibiotic resistance as part of his work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.”

“He took me on a trip through South America when I was, I think, in seventh grade,” his son said. “He thought, ‘You’re going to learn more traveling through these various neighborhoods and cities in South America for a week and a half than you will in public school in Brookline.’ I think he put the travel bug in me.”

The funnyman said his dad “was the dreamer.”

“My dad was the one who was saying ‘I’m off to Peru with a change of clothes in my briefcase to try and launch this website for a hospital there high in the mountains,’ ” O’Brien recalled.

He described his mom as “the realist.”

“As my dad was rushing around doing this incredible work, my mom was the one who really saw to it when we were little kids that we were fed and our clothes were laid out, and that we got to our dental appointments and medical appointments,” he said.

As different as his parents were, O’Brien said, they were bonded by their shared Irish Catholic roots and their “dedication to excellence.”

“I think what my mother and father saw in each other was that they were kindred spirits,” O’Brien said. “They were incredibly hard-working and disciplined.”

Their son seems to have inherited those qualities. O’Brien’s next project will be hosting the 97th Academy Awards on March 2, 2025.

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