A beloved piece of Filipino Marvel history is gone.
Mary Rivera, the Iloilo-born actress who captured the hearts of millions as Ned Leeds’ feisty grandmother in Spider-Man: No Way Home, has passed away at the age of 82.
Rivera died peacefully on April 15, according to her obituary. News of her death reached international audiences on August 3, prompting an outpouring of grief from Spider-Man fans who still remember the scene that turned Ned’s modest family home into the center of the Marvel multiverse.
Her appearance may have been brief, but Rivera delivered one of the film’s funniest, warmest and most proudly Filipino moments.
It was inside her character’s home that Ned, played by Filipino-American actor Jacob Batalon, accidentally opened magical portals while attempting to locate Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.
Instead, he summoned two legendary Spider-Men from other universes—Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire.
For longtime Marvel followers, it was the crossover they had dreamed about for years. For Filipino moviegoers, however, the scene carried an extra emotional punch: one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters suddenly sounded and felt unmistakably Pinoy.
While fans were still processing the historic arrival of Garfield and Maguire, Ned’s lola remained hilariously unimpressed by the superheroes standing in her living room.
In Filipino, she instructed Ned to tell Garfield’s Spider-Man to remove a cobweb from the ceiling.
“Ned, sabihin mo diyan sa mamang ’yan na alisin ’yung agiw sa sulok ha?” she said.
Moments later, she scolded the group for making a mess, sounding exactly like countless Filipino grandmothers who demand that their homes remain spotless—multiverse crisis or not.
“Nagkalat ka na naman! Linisin mo lahat ng mga basura mo dito,” she told them before heading upstairs.
The scene instantly became iconic.
Amid portals, superheroes and universe-threatening chaos, Rivera brought something deeply familiar to Filipino audiences: the warmth, authority and effortless humor of a traditional Pinoy lola.
She shared the unforgettable sequence with Batalon, Garfield, Maguire and Zendaya, who played MJ. Yet despite appearing alongside some of the biggest stars in the world, Rivera never allowed her character to fade into the background.
With only a handful of lines, she made Ned’s lola feel real, relatable and unforgettable.
Rivera’s family previously revealed how proud she was to have appeared in the blockbuster. The role is believed to have been her only screen acting credit, making her unexpected rise to global fame even more remarkable.
“To us, she’s just my mom, but to the rest of the world, she’s Ned’s lola,” her daughter Angie Kelly said in a 2022 interview.
Kelly also described the experience as meaningful because it placed the Filipino language and culture inside one of the most successful superhero films ever made.
For many Filipino viewers, Rivera’s performance represented far more than comic relief.
Hearing Tagalog spoken naturally in a major Marvel production was a powerful moment of recognition. It allowed Filipino families to see a version of themselves onscreen—not as an exotic stereotype, but as an ordinary household complete with slippers, family photographs, clutter and a grandmother who was not afraid to order Spider-Man to clean the ceiling.
Before her unexpected Hollywood moment, Rivera was a retired missionary living in Honolulu, Hawaii.
She is survived by her husband, Alejandro Rivera; their four children; 11 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Her family has lost a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. The Marvel universe has lost the woman behind one of its most endearing characters.
But for Filipino fans, Mary Rivera will always be remembered as the lola who welcomed three Spider-Men into her home—and still made sure they cleaned up after themselves.
Rest in peace, Ned’s lola.
The multiverse will never forget you.
