Mary Rivera, an actress known for playing Ned Leeds’ Lola in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” has died at the age of 82. According to her obituary, Rivera died on April 15 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Rivera appeared in the high-grossing “No Way Home” as the grandmother to Ned (Jacob Batalon), Peter Parker’s best friend and “guy in the chair” from Tom Holland’s MCU-set Spider-Man series. The actress only appeared in the third feature, which was her lone screen credit.
Though she is only in a handful of moments in the film, Rivera has a key role in one of the biggest scenes in “No Way Home.” Specifically, the actress is present for the scene in which the multiversal Peter Parkers, played by former Spider-Man actors Tobey Maguire (Peter 2) and Andrew Garfield (Peter 3), are summoned to Ned’s home as he and MJ (Zendaya) search for their Peter.
Ned’s Lola has a series of funny exchanges with the Spider-Men, asking Peter 3 to clear a cobweb off of the ceiling and asking both of the superheroes to clean up their own webbing in Tagalog. She then simply declares, “I’m going to bed,” in English before exiting the scene.
Ned also credits Rivera’s character with teaching him that his family is magic, thus allowing him to use Doctor Strange’s portal-opening Sling Ring throughout the third act of the film.
According to her obituary, Rivera took on the role of Ned’s Filipino grandmother after retiring from being a missionary. “She was very proud of this accolade,” the obituary says of her “No Way Home” role.
Though Rivera died in April, the news has been shared hot on the heels of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” a direct sequel to “No Way Home,” having the highest-grossing domestic opening weekend of all time. This is one of several box office milestones the fourth Holland-led “Spider-Man” feature has already passed. The film made $941 million worldwide in its first weekend.
“No Way Home” was itself a box office phenomenon, boasting the fourth-highest worldwide opening of all time ($600 million, behind “Avengers: Endgame,” “Brand New Day” and “Avengers: Infinity War”) and the third-highest domestic opening of all time ($260 million, behind “Brand New Day” and “Endgame”). “No Way Home” remains the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time, peaking at No. 6 before being surpassed by “Avatar: The Way of Water” (which sits at No. 3) and “Ne Zha 2” (which sits at No. 5). It made a total of $1.922 billion, despite being released in Dec. 2021 as theaters still struggled with the effects of the pandemic.
Rivera is survived by her husband, Alejandro Rivera, her four children, her 11 grandchildren and her four great grandchildren.
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