Patton Oswalt with his daughter Alice.Photo:Frazer Harrison/Getty
Frazer Harrison/Getty
Patton Oswaltis keeping the memory of his late wife alive for his daughter.
On Thursday, Feb. 20 at the Los Angeles premiere ofSuits LA,the actor and comedian, 56, opened up to PEOPLE exclusively about how he saved all the books that inspired his late wife, true crime writer Michelle McNamara, for their 15-year-old daughterAlice.
“I saved all the books that really influenced Michelle for her to read,” he shares with PEOPLE. “A lot of authors that really landed with her, and one of them was Truman Capote’sIn Cold Blood,” which she read and loved."
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Patton Oswalt.Todd Williamson/NBC
Todd Williamson/NBC
Oswalt wed his late wife in 2005 and welcomed a daughter four years later. McNamaradiedsuddenly in her sleep in April 2016 at age 46 from a combination of prescription medications and an undiagnosed heart condition. Oswalt has since remarried, tying the knot withMeredith Salengerin November 2017.
“We just were very, very honest about, ‘Here’s how I’m feeling,’ " the father of one told PEOPLE exclusively leading up toFather’s Dayon how he and Alice dealt with McNamara’s death.
Patton Oswalt with his daughter Alice.Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
“We were in despair for days and months afterwards and then one night we were up and neither of us could sleep,” he recalled. “We were just talking and trying to get through it and my daughter just said, ‘When your mom dies, everythingyou do is a memory of her. You are a memory of her. You are her memory.'”
“It just came out of nowhere and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ " Oswalt added. “I remember very specifically running and writing that down.”
source: people.com