Martin Hayter Short , CM (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, writer, singer and producer. He is best known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live .

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Early life

Short, youngest of five children, was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the son of Olive (née Hayter), a violinist, and Charles Patrick Short, a corporate executive with Stelco, a Canadian steel company. ^{[1] [2]} Short's father came to North America in 1921 as a stowaway Roman Catholic refugee from South Armagh, Northern Ireland during the Irish War of Independence . His mother, who was the concertmaster of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, encouraged his early creative endeavours. ^[3]

Short attended Westdale Secondary School and graduated in 1972 from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work. ^[4] His eldest brother, David, was killed in a car accident in 1962, when Short was 12. His mother died of cancer when he was 17; two years later, his father died of complications from a stroke in 1970. ^[5]

Career

Early career

When Short graduated from McMaster University, he intended to pursue a career in social work, but he became interested in acting once he was cast in a Toronto production of Godspell in 1972 (among the other members of that production's cast: Victor Garber, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas and Andrea Martin, with Paul Shaffer as musical director.) He was subsequently cast in several television shows and plays, including an intense topical drama, Fortune and Men's Eyes . (He worked solely in Canada from 1972 through 1979.)

In 1979, Short starred in the TV sitcom The Associates about a group of young novice lawyers working at a Wall Street law firm.

Short then joined the cast of I'm A Big Girl Now , a sitcom vehicle for Diana Canova in 1980. Canova was offered the sitcom due to her success playing Corinne Tate Flotsky on ABC's Soap , and she left the cast of the latter show in the fall of 1980 in order to accept the offer shortly before Short's newlywed wife Nancy Dolman joined it.

SCTV

Short was encouraged to pursue comedy by McMaster classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas, both notable comedians in their own right. He joined Levy and Thomas at improv troupe The Second City in 1977. Short came to public notice when the troupe produced a show for television, called Second City Television or SCTV , which ran for several years in Canada and the United States. Short was a cast member and performed several recurring characters. He was a member of the troupe for several years before moving on to Saturday Night Live for the 1984-1985 season. ^[6] At SCTV, Short developed many characters which he later used at SNL:

• Talk show host Brock Linehan, based on the Canadian interviewer Brian Linehan.
• Aged songwriter Irving Cohen, loosely based on American composer Irving Caesar.
• Spurious albino entertainer Jackie Rogers, Jr.
• Current-events commentator Troy Soren
• Industrialist and art patron Bradley P. Allen
• Defensive attorney Nathan Thurm
• Oddball man-child Ed Grimley. This character was later featured in his own animated television series, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley .

Saturday Night Live

At SNL , Short helped revive the show after Eddie Murphy left with his many characters, including the Wheel of Fortune fan Ed Grimley he borrowed from his SCTV days. The Grimley character became perhaps Short's best known original character. He also was recognized for his impersonations of celebrities, notably Jerry Lewis and Katharine Hepburn, and for the character of Nathan Thurm. SNL proved to be the springboard to a long career in film & TV.

Film

After doing sketch comedy for several years, Short focused on film roles, appearing in many films, including ¡Three Amigos! , Innerspace , The Big Picture , Captain Ron , Clifford , Mars Attacks! , and the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride as well as the sequel. In 2004 he wrote and starred in Jiminy Glick in Lalawood , with Jan Hooks as his wife, Dixie Glick. Also in 1997 he appeared as Richard Kempster in Jungle 2 Jungle which starred Tim Allen. He starred in another movie with Tim Allen in 2006 The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause . Short was also in Pure Luck directed by Nadia Tass with Danny Glover and Sheila Kelley, ^[7] and in Three Fugitives directed by Francis Veber with Nick Nolte and James Earl Jones.

Live performances

Short also resumed work in the theater, taking a role in the 1993 musical version of the Neil Simon work The Goodbye Girl, receiving a Tony Award nomination as well an Outer Critic Circle Award . He had the lead role in the 1999 revival of the musical Little Me , which earned him a Tony Award and another Outer Critic Circle Award.

Short performed in his satirical one-man show (with a full cast of six), Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me , at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway. The show toured several cities in the spring of 2006, began previews on July 29, 2006, opened on August 17 and closed on January 7, 2007. In it, he performed his aforementioned classic characters Grimley, Cohen, and Glick. As Glick, Short brought a member of the audience (usually a celebrity) on stage and interviews him or her. Jerry Seinfeld was the guest on opening night and the subjects have included Bill Maher, Kristin Chenoweth, Tom Burg, Regis Philbin, Neil Simon, Diane Keaton, Jamie Lee Curtis, Richard Kind, David Schwimmer, David Hasselhoff and many more. The show also featured parodies of many celebrities including Celine Dion, Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Tommy Tune, Joan Rivers, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Renée Zellweger, Jodie Foster and Short's wife, actress Nancy Dolman.

The cast album was released on April 10, 2007 and is available from Ghostlight Records, an imprint of Sh-K-Boom Records.

During 2008 and 2009 Short continues to tour his comedy show, which features many of his best loved characters and skits.

Personal life

Relationships

Short met Canadian comic actress Nancy Dolman during the run of the 1972 production of Godspell . After that production, Short dated costar Gilda Radner, then began dating Dolman (Radner's understudy) in 1974. The couple married in 1980.

Dolman retired from show business in 1985 to be a homemaker. Short and Dolman have three children: Katherine Elizabeth (born December 2, 1983), Oliver Patrick (born April 29, 1986), and Henry Hayter(born August 4, 1989). Short and his family make their home in Pacific Palisades, California, and Short has become a naturalized U.S. citizen. They also have a home on Lake Rosseau in Ontario, Canada. ^[8]

Short has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. ^[9] He is a Roman Catholic. His brother, Michael Short, is a comedy writer and twice winner of the Emmy Award for comedy sketch writing.

Extended family

Dolman's brother, screenwriter/director Bob Dolman (who served as a part of SCTV's Emmy-winning writing team alongside Short), married their close friend and colleague Andrea Martin, also in 1980. Dolman and Short are aunt and uncle to the couple's two sons, Jack (born 1981) and Joe (born 1983). Bob Dolman and Andrea Martin have since divorced. ^[10] Short is the first cousin of Clare Short, a member of the British Parliament and a former British cabinet minister.

Awards and honors

• 1972: Bachelor of Arts in social work: McMaster University
• 1982: Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program, SCTV Comedy Network ; award shared
• 1982: Nelly Award: Outstanding Writing, SCTV Comedy Network
• 1993: Outer Critics Circle Award: Outstanding Actor in a Musical, The Goodbye Girl
• 1993: Theater World Award
• 1994: Member of the Order of Canada
• 1995: Earl Grey Life Time Achievement Award
• 1999: Outer Critics Circle Award: Outstanding Actor in a Musical, Little Me
• 1999: Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, Little Me
• 2000: Canada Walk of Fame
• 2001: Doctor of Letters honoris causa: [McMaster University]
• 2002: Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee Medal

Filmography

;Actor

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1972	Cucumber	Smokey the Hare	TV series
	Right On	Regular	TV series
1975	Peep Show	- ?	TV series
1976	The David Steinberg Show	Johnny Del Bravo	TV series
1978	For The Record	Weepy	TV series
1979	Lost & Found	Engel
	The Associates	Tucker Kerwin	TV series (Unknown episodes)
	The Family Man	Louie	(TV)
1980	The Love Boat	Melvin	TV series
	I'm A Big Girl Now	Neal Stryker	TV series
1981	Second City TV	Pancho	TV series
	Taxi	Mitch Harris	TV series
1982	Miss Peach of the Kelly School	(Voice)	TV series
1982-1983	SCTV Network 90	Various	TV series
1983	Sunset Limousine	Bradley Z. Coleman	(TV)
1983-1984	SCTV Channel	Various	TV series
1986	Tall Tales and Legends	Johnny Appleseed	TV series
	¡Three Amigos!	Ned Nederlander
1987	Really Weird Tales	Shucky	(TV)
	Innerspace	Jack Putter
	Cross My Heart	David Morgan
1988	The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley	Ed Grimley / Emil Gustav/Various (voice)	TV series
1989	The Making of Me
	Andrea Martin... Together Again	Dr. August Allwoman / Kennedy	(TV)
	I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood	Lawrence Orbach / Bradley P. Allen / Ed Grimley / Jackie Rogers, Jr./ Dale O'Day / 'Baby' Estelle O'Day / Troy	(TV)
	Three Fugitives	Ned Perry
	The Big Picture	Neil Sussman, Nick's Agent	(Uncredited)
1989-1990	The Tracey Ullman Show	Lou, Football fan / Doc The Elvis Presley Freak	TV series
1990	The Dave Thomas Comedy Show	TV series
1991	Pure Luck	Eugene Proctor
	Maniac Mansion	Eddie O'Donnell	TV series
	Father of the Bride	Franck Eggelhoffer
1992	Captain Ron	Martin Harvey
1993	Money For Nothing	Harrison Kilray	TV Film (BBC Screen One series)
	We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story	Stubbs the Clown (voice)
1994	Clifford	Clifford Daniels
	The Martin Short Show	Marty Short	TV series (Unknown episodes)
1995	The Pebble and the Penguin	Hubie (voice)	Animated Film
	Father of the Bride Part II	Franck Eggelhoffer
1996	Creature Crunch	(Voice)	(VG)
	Mars Attacks!	Press Secretary Jerry Ross
1997	Jungle 2 Jungle	Richard Kempster
	A Simple Wish	Murray
1998	Akbar's Adventure Tours	Akbar
	Merlin	Frik	(TV)
	The Prince of Egypt	Huy (voice)
1999	Alice in Wonderland	Mad Hatter / Chinless Idiot	(TV)
	Mumford	Lionel Dillard
2001	Get Over It	Dr. Desmond Forrest Gates
	Prince Charming (TV Film)	Rodney	(TV)
	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius	Ooblar (voice)
2002	CinéMagique	George
	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Himself
	Treasure Planet	B.E.N. (voice)
2003	101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure	Lars (voice)	(V)
2001-2003	Primetime Glick	Jiminy Glick / Miss Gathercole / Various	TV series
2004	Jiminy Glick in Lalawood	Jiminy Glick / David Lynch
	Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper	Preminger	(V)
2005	Arrested Development	Uncle Jack	TV series
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Sebastian Ballentine / Henry Palaver	TV series
1984-2005	Saturday Night Live	Jiminy Glick /Host / Various	TV series
2006	The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause	Jack Frost
2008	The Spiderwick Chronicles	Thimbletack (voice)
2010	Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil	The Woodsman (voice)	Filming
	The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That!	The Cat in the Hat	TV series

;Writer

Year	Film	Other notes
1981	Second City TV	TV series
1982-1983	SCTV Network 90	TV series
1983-1984	SCTV Channel	TV series
1985	Martin Short: Concert for the North Americas	(TV)
1984-1985	Saturday Night Live	TV-series
1988	The Best of SCTV	(TV)
	The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley	TV series
1989	The 1989 Gemini Awards	(TV)
	I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood	(TV)
1994	The Martin Short Show	TV series (Unknown episodes)
1995	The Show Formerly Known as the Martin Short Show	(TV)
1999	The Martin Short Show	TV series (Unknown episodes)
2001	Primetime Glick	TV series (Unknown episodes)
2003	Martin Short Shorts	(TV)
2004	Jiminy Glick in Lalawood

;Producer

Year	Film	Other notes
1994	The Martin Short Show	TV series (Unknown episodes), (executive producer)
1999	The Martin Short Show	TV series (Unknown episodes), (executive producer)
2001	Primetime Glick	TV series (Unknown episodes), (executive producer), (producer)
2003	Martin Short Shorts	(TV) (producer)
2004	Jimmy Glick in Lalawood	(Producer)

;Director

Year	Film	Other notes
1993	Friends of Gilda	(TV)

In-character quotes

• As Irving Cohen: "What hell kind of name is Roy!? "
• As Irving Cohen: "Give me a C, a bouncy C. "
• As Irving Cohen (as his standard conclusion to an improvised song, of which he's sung a few bars, accompanied by replacing his cigar in his mouth): "...a dot dot dot, dee dee dee, and whatever the hell else you want to put in there. "
• As Ed Grimley (indrawn breath): "I must say... ".
• As Ed Grimley (clutching his burning fingers after removing a batch of cookies from the oven without using an oven mitt): "That's a pain that will tend to linger. "
• As Bradley Allen: "''You can't tell me that a woman who plays the tuba doesn't have a boyfriend somewhere... I mean who's going to carry the damn thing?"
• As Bradley Allen (drinking Scotch and declining tissues after a productive cough): "No, I got it. "
• As Franc Eggelhoffer..."Every party has a pooper, that's why we invited you, party pooper, GEORGE BANKS! That's who!"
• As Jack Frost (talking to a little girl who told him to chill) : "I invented chill! "
• As Jack Frost (talking to the other members of the Legendary Council) "Excuse me! Did you accuse me of being skillful and delicious? Guilty as charged! "
• As Huy.... "You're playing with the big boys now! "

References

1. Martin Short Biography
2. Laugh Track
3. 10 Questions For Martin Short
4. Westdale grads found stardom
5. Fame Becomes Martin Short
6. Martin Short Biography
7. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102729/
8. Muskoka: The Malibu of the North
9. Martin Short: 2000 Inductee
10. Andrea Martin Biography