Academy Award Winning Best Actress Melissa Leo discusses National Memorial Day Concert 2026, New Film Passengers
Photo: Talent
Academy Award winning Best Actress Melissa Leo will perform at the National Memorial Day Concert 2026, telling the powerful story of Lt. General Patricia D. Horoho who watched the television in horror as Flight 175 hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Just a few minutes later, Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, a few hundred feet from her office.
Jumping into action, Horoho was just the second person to arrive at the site of the crash, and immediately jumped into action helping survivors and first responders in the face of the biggest and most horrific terrorist attack in the United States history.
Melissa Leo, who won the Academy Award for The Fighter, tells LTG (Ret) Horoho’s story through Horoho’s own words, a powerful testament to the selflessness of the human spirit. In an interview for Pop Culture Weekly, Leo tells me:
I can't wait to meet her. I'll meet her tomorrow evening after I deliver her words. So…it brings tears to my eyes to even think of the honor of sharing her - her strength and her vision of a United States of America.”
When asked about the opportunity to tell Horoho’s story, Leo said:
“I was delighted to ask. I rarely have participated in any sort of Memorial Day event, and to be asked to do this and to read Patty's words. I thought it was a letter she wrote, but actually it's words taken from interviews with her. Seven, eight hours of interviews they did with her, and I can tell the words they've chosen are so powerful.”
You can see Melissa Leo’s powerful performance of LTG (Ret) Horoho’s on PBS National Memorial Day Concert 2026, airing live Sunday May 24, 2025 on PBS, YouTube, the PBS website & Armed Forces Network. It will be available on demand for two weeks following the broadcast.
Melissa Leo's latest film, Passenger, is in theaters now.
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