Veteran showbiz reporter Sam Rubin’s son has delivered an emotional on-air tribute, addressed directly to the father he lost only days ago.
The youngest of Rubin’s four children, 16-year-old Colby Rubin, joined KTLA 5 Morning News on Monday to reflect on his father’s death at the age of 64 last Friday after suffering a heart attack.
Rubin’s death led to an outpouring of grief from Hollywood celebs, who shared stories of their encounters with the red carpet stalwart over the years.
Here in Australia, Rubin had been a regular guest on Nine’s Today show for years, and the hosts of that show said on Monday that they’d “lost a friend.”
Colby joined his father’s colleagues on the KTLA desk, looking down the barrel of the camera to speak to his late dad directly.
“Hi dad. I wrote this under the desk in your cubicle – only you weren’t there to wake me up this time. Dad, I can’t believe you’re gone,” he began.
“I love you so much. On the day you died, I hope you heard me say that. You were the kindest soul, the light in every room. I can’t imagine my life without you… You were always there.”
He said he idolised his father, calling him “my hero”: “I never got to tell you that, and I’m so sorry dad.”
Colby also shared some private texts between he and his father, which Sam encouraging him when he was unsure of himself. “You can do this,” his father had texted him. “You’re going to be fine.”
At this, Colby fell silent, overcome with emotion. The hosts told him they could come back to him later, but he took a deep breath and forged on.
“I can’t believe I’ve lost you. I had more of a father in 16 years than some people get in their entire lives, and I’m so grateful. You are a beautiful human and you will never be forgotten. Dad I love you. I am so lost without you, I’ll miss you every day. I hope you know how loved you are.”
Colby’s tribute left Rubin’s colleagues in tears, with one co-host telling him simply: “He knew.”
“He would be so proud of you. All of us are parents, we all can say – that is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard,” one of the hosts said as she fought back tears.
Viewers praised Colby for his “strength and composure” in delivering the tribute live on television just a few days after his father’s death.
“Amazing how Colby was able to do this with such grace, strength, and composure. You can tell Sam was an amazing father through Colby’s tribute,” wrote TV anchor Stephanie Myers on Twitter.
Here in Australia, Today host Karl Stefanovic said on-air during Monday’s show that he had “lost a friend,” calling Rubin a “beautiful man.”
Stefanovic also revealed some sage advice the TV veteran had given him back when he first started on Today: “You’ve just got to be yourself. And then some years later, he said: ‘There’s such a thing as being too much of yourself’,” he said with a laugh.
Stars in all corners of Hollywood spoke out to pay their respects to Rubin after news of his death broke on the weekend.
A-lister Ryan Reynolds wrote on Twitter that “even if I was on my 85th interview that day, I was always happy to see Sam. Even if HE was on his 85th interview that day, he always brought genuine kindness, curiosity and an outside the box question.”
Jamie Lee Curtis shared a photo of the two together on Instagram, writing that “there was no one more enthusiastic about his job than Sam Rubin. I’ve known Sam for most of my career, and he had a light in his eyes every early morning as he started his daily work.”
Rubin is survived by his wife Leslie and four children: Perry, 28, Rory, 23, Darcy, 18, and 16-year-old Colby.