'They Were Kindred Spirits': Conan O'Brien Reflects On Parents After They Died Days Apart

LOADINGERROR LOADINGConan O’Brien reflected on memories of his late parents, Dr.Thomas O’Brien and Ruth Reardon O’Brien, after they died three days apart from each other last week.The former late night host, in a piece by the Boston Globe, opened up about growing up in his hometown of Brookline, Massachusetts as he remarked on how his parents “complemented each other very well.”Advertisement Conan O’Brien’s father, an associated professor at Harvard Medical School known for his work in antimicrobial drug resistance, died at age 95 on Dec.

9 after “his health had been failing” him, the Globe noted in an obituary.O’Brien’s mother, a lawyer and just the second woman partner at the Boston-founded Ropes & Gray law firm, died “peacefully” at age 92 on Dec.12, per an obituary shared by Bell O’Dea Funeral Home of Brookline.“I think what my mother and father saw in each other was that they were kindred spirits,” O’Brien told the Globe.Advertisement “They were incredibly hard-working and disciplined.”The two shared six children as well as nine grandchildren and were married for 66 years.The causes of their deaths have yet to be disclosed to the public.His father was a “student of humor” and a fan of late night talk shows as he made sure that his children “knew comedy’s classics” from the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Jack Benny and the Marx Brothers, the Globe noted in an obituary.“The loudest I’ve ever heard anybody laugh was sitting next to him in a theater watching Peter Sellers in a ‘Pink Panther’ movie,” said O’Brien of his “fantastic man” of a father who he dubbed the “funniest guy in the room.”O’Brien — who has served as host of the travel show “Conan Without Borders” and its follow-up “Conan O’Brien Must Go” — praised his father for putting “the travel bug” in him at an early age.Advertisement “He took me on a trip through South America when I was, I think, in se...