Mary Egida Rivera, who played the grandmother of Spider-Man’s best friend Ned in the 2021 film, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” has died, according to an online obituary. She was 82.
According to an obituary posted by Diamond Head Mortuary and Williams Funeral Services, Rivera, of Mililani, Hawaii, died on April 15 in Honolulu.
The Philippine-born actress suffered a stroke and was eventually taken off life support, Deadline reported.
TMZ was the first outlet to report Rivera’s passing.
Mary Rivera, who played the grandmother of Ned in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” has died. She was 82.
— Variety (@Variety) August 4, 2026
Her family member also told TMZ that Rivera was “extremely proud” of her role in “No Way Home,” and that landing the part was one of her most cherished accomplishments.… pic.twitter.com/QBXn4YItId
According to her obituary, Rivera was born on June 2, 1943, in Iloilo, Philippines.
Rivera had a brief but memorable scene in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), MJ (Zendaya) and Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), Variety reported.
Ned and MJ are in a standoff with Peter, who just emerged from the multiverse to help save their universe’s Spider-Man, played by Tom Holland. Rivera punctures the tension by asking Garfield to climb across a ceiling and “clean up the web you just shot.”
“Oh sorry, Lola,” Garfield responds.
“I’m going to bed,” Rivera says as she walks away.
In May 2022, Rivera’s daughter Angie Kelly, told Hawai’i Public Radio how her mother secured the part.
“I happened to be on a friend’s Facebook scrolling, and I see an ad, a casting call looking for a local Hawaiʻi Filipina grandmother between the age of 50 and 90,” Kelly said. “And immediately I thought, ‘Oh, well my mom qualifies and checks off all those boxes.’”
She was able to persuade Rivera to audition, and she landed the role.
“She was very proud of this accolade,” Rivera’s obituary stated.
“They just asked her to talk about herself and why she wanted to do the role. So she just gave a brief history of her time in the Philippines and what brought her to the United States, and raising her four children and 11 grandchildren — and basically that that is her biggest accomplishment of everything that she’s done,” Kelly told Hawai’i Public Radio. “My mom has worn many hats over the years. She was a radio broadcaster, a teacher, but most notable was her role as a mother and grandmother.”
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