Conan O’Brien knows that laughter is the best medicine.
In fact, it rang true when he hosted the 2025 Oscars, three months after the deaths of his parents Dr. Thomas F. O’Brien and Ruth Reardon O’Brien, who passed away in December within three days of each other. At the time, Conan was in his busiest career season, leaving him no choice but to get the job done.
“You can do things when you don’t have a choice,” the comedian said during an interview with NBC News published May 14. “And I think that’s an amazing thing.”
The 62-year-old reflected on the moment he got the call about his father’s death on Dec. 9 while he was in the middle of shooting his Max series Conan Must Go.
“I was in Austria when my brother Luke called me and said, ‘Dad passed,'” Conan said about the late scientist who was 95 at the time of his death. “And I took a van to a plane to another plane, just different airport hubs, got to Boston. And walk in the room and my dad’s bed is empty, and my mom was in the bed next to him.”
