Martin Short

Short met comic actress Nancy Dolman in 1972 during the Toronto run of the musical Godspell, where she performed as an understudy. The couple married on December 22, 1980, and adopted three children: Katherine, Oliver, and Henry. Dolman retired from show business in 1985 to focus on raising their family. She died of ovarian cancer on August 21, 2010. In February 2026, their daughter Katherine died at age 42.

Short experienced significant familial loss during his youth. His eldest brother, David, died in a car crash in 1962 when Short was 12 years old. His mother died of cancer in 1968, and his father died two years later from complications following a stroke. Short's brother Michael is an Emmy-winning television comedy writer who also worked on SCTV. Through his marriage to Dolman, Short is the brother-in-law of screenwriter and director Bob Dolman.

Martin Hayter Short was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the youngest of five children of Olive Grace Hayter, a concert violinist and concertmistress with the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, and Charles Patrick Short, a corporate executive at the steel company Stelco who had emigrated from Crossmaglen, Northern Ireland. Short attended Westdale Secondary School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work from McMaster University in 1971.

Though he initially intended to work in social services, encouragement from McMaster classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas led him to pursue professional acting. In 1972, he secured his first paid acting job playing a giant credit card in a Chargex television commercial. Later that year, director Stephen Schwartz cast him in the landmark Toronto production of Godspell at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. The production also featured Victor Garber, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, and Andrea Martin, with Paul Shaffer serving as musical director. Short and Radner dated on and off during the production's run.

In 1977, Short joined the Toronto Second City comedy troupe, taking over from John Candy in the revue The Wizard of Ossington. After early television roles on sitcoms such as The Associates and I'm a Big Girl Now, he broke through to a wider audience when he joined the cast and writing staff of Second City Television (SCTV) in 1982. On the show, Short developed several signature characters, including the eccentric Ed Grimley, sweating defense attorney Nathan Thurm, albino Vegas performer Jackie Rogers Jr., and aged songwriter Irving Cohen. In 1983, Short won a Primetime Emmy Award for writing on SCTV.

Short joined the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live for its 1984-1985 season alongside performers such as Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest. His tenure helped revitalize the show's ratings, propelled by recurring sketches featuring Ed Grimley and impressions of celebrities like Jerry Lewis and Katharine Hepburn. Ed Grimley later became the centerpiece of Hanna-Barbera's 1988 animated series The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, making it the only animated show derived from characters originating on both SCTV and Saturday Night Live.

Short transitioned into Hollywood feature films following his season on Saturday Night Live. He starred alongside Steve Martin and Chevy Chase in the 1986 western comedy Three Amigos!, beginning a decades-long personal and professional friendship with Martin. Over the next decade, Short starred in comedies such as Innerspace (1987), Three Fugitives (1989), Pure Luck (1991), Captain Ron (1992), and Clifford (1994). He portrayed the eccentric wedding coordinator Franck Eggelhoffer in the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride and its 1995 sequel, and played press secretary Jerry Ross in Tim Burton's 1996 sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks!.

Alongside his screen work, Short maintained a Broadway career. In 1993, he starred in the musical adaptation of Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl, earning a Tony Award nomination. In 1999, he won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for playing multiple roles in the Broadway revival of Little Me. He later returned to the Broadway stage in 2006 to star in his self-devised musical comedy revue Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, and in 2015 replaced Nathan Lane in Terrence McNally's comedy It's Only a Play.

In 2001, Short introduced the character Jiminy Glick, an obese, uninformed, and intrusive celebrity interviewer, on the Comedy Central series Primetime Glick. The show ran for three seasons, featuring unscripted interviews with high-profile guest stars, and spawned the 2004 feature film Jiminy Glick in Lalawood. Short frequently brought the character back for guest spots on late-night talk shows and television specials.

Short also took on dramatic television roles, earning a Primetime Emmy nomination for his performance as attorney Leonard Winstone in the third season of FX's legal drama Damages in 2010. He played recurring characters on Weeds and How I Met Your Mother, starred in the sitcom Mulaney, and co-headlined the 2016 NBC variety series Maya & Marty with Maya Rudolph. Additionally, Short has voiced characters in animated films such as The Prince of Egypt (1998), Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), Treasure Planet (2002), Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), and Frankenweenie (2012), as well as the title character in the animated series The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!.

In 2015, Short began touring across North America with Steve Martin in joint stage shows including A Very Stupid Conversation and An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life. Their 2018 Netflix comedy special based on the tour received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

In 2021, Short, Martin, and Selena Gomez began starring in the Hulu comedy-mystery series Only Murders in the Building, with Short portraying the flamboyant Broadway director Oliver Putnam while also serving as an executive producer. The series received broad critical acclaim, earning Short multiple nominations for Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Awards. In 2025, Short won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on the show.