Martin Short

Martin Hayter Short, CM (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian American actor comedian, writer, singer, voice actor and producer. He is best known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live. He starred in such comedic films as Three Amigos (1986), Innerspace (1987), Father of the Bride(1991), Pure Luck (1991), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), Mars Attacks! (1996), and Jungle 2 Jungle (1997) and created the characters of Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley. He also has appeared on stage, and won the Tony Award for the 1999 Broadway revival of Little Me. --- Short was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the youngest of five children of Olive (née Hayter), a violinist, and Charles Patrick Short, a corporate executive with Stelco, a Canadian steel company. He and his siblings were raised as Catholics. He had three older brothers, David (now deceased), Michael, and Brian, and one older sister, Nora. Short's father was a Catholic from Crossmaglen, South Armagh (present-day Northern Ireland), who came to North America as a stowaway during the Irish War of Independence. Short's mother, concertmaster of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, encouraged Martin's early creative endeavours. His eldest brother, David, was killed in a car accident in 1962 when Short was 12. His mother died of cancer in 1967, his father two years later of complications from a stroke. Short attended Westdale Secondary School and graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work in 1971. When Short graduated from McMaster University, he intended to pursue a career in social work; however, he became interested in acting once he was cast in a Toronto production of Godspell that same year. Among other members of that production's cast were Victor Garber, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, and Andrea Martin; Paul Shaffer was the musical director. He was subsequently cast in several television shows and plays, including the drama Fortune and Men's Eyes (1972). He worked solely in Canada through 1979. In 1979, Short starred in the U.S. sitcom The Associates about a group of young novice lawyers working at a Wall Street law firm. In 1980, he joined the cast of I'm a Big Girl Now, a sitcom starring Diana Canova and Danny Thomas. Canova was offered the sitcom because of her success playing Corinne Tate Flotsky on ABC's Soap and left Soap shortly before Short's newlywed wife Nancy Dolman joined it. --- After doing sketch comedy for several years, Short focused on film—appearing in ¡Three Amigos!, Innerspace, The Big Picture, Captain Ron, Clifford, Three Fugitives (1989), directed by Francis Veber, with Nick Nolte and James Earl Jones, the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride, and its sequel, and in Pure Luck (1991), directed by Nadia Tass, with Danny Glover and Sheila Kelley. In 1996, he appeared in Tim Burton's sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! as image-obsessed, hormonally driven Press Secretary Jerry Ross. In 1997, he appeared as Wall Street broker Richard Kempster in Jungle 2 Jungle alongside Tim Allen. --- Short met Canadian comic actress Nancy Dolman in 1972 during the run of Godspell. The couple married in 1980. Dolman retired from show business in 1985 to be a stay-at-home mom and raise her family. Nancy Dolman Short died on August 21, 2010, from ovarian cancer. Short and Dolman have three children: Katherine (1983), Oliver (1986), and Henry (1989). Short and his family make their home in Pacific Palisades, California. Short also has a home on Lake Rosseau in Ontario. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Short has two stars on Canada's Walk of Fame. His brother Michael Short is a comedy writer and twice winner of the Emmy Award for comedy sketch writing.