Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short OC (born March 26, 1950[1]) is a Canadian and American actor, comedian, and writer.[2] Short is known as an energetic comedian who gained prominence for his roles in sketch comedy. He has also acted in numerous films and television shows. He has received various awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. Short was awarded as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019.
For the author, see Martin Short (author).
Martin Short
- Canada
- United States
- Actor
- comedian
- writer
1972–present
3
- Film
- television
- theatre
He is known for his work on the television programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live. Short created the characters Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley. He also acted in the sitcom Mulaney (2014–2015), the variety series Maya & Marty (2016), and The Morning Show (2019). He has also had an active career on stage, starring in Broadway productions including Neil Simon's musicals The Goodbye Girl (1993) and Little Me (1998–1999). The latter earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the former a nomination in the same category.
He has starred in comedy films such as Three Amigos (1986), Innerspace (1987), Three Fugitives (1989), Father of the Bride (1991), Captain Ron (1992), Clifford (1994), Mars Attacks! (1996), Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006). Short also provided voice-work for films like The Pebble and the Penguin (1995), The Prince of Egypt (1998), Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), Treasure Planet (2002), 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2003), Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper (2004), The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Frankenweenie (both 2012), and The Wind Rises (2013).
In 2015, Short started touring nationally with fellow comedian Steve Martin. In 2018, they released their Netflix special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life for which they received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Since 2021, he has co-starred in the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building alongside Martin and Selena Gomez. For his performance he has earned nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award.
Early life and education[edit]
Short was born on March 26, 1950, in Hamilton, Ontario, the youngest of five children of Olive Grace (née Hayter; 1913–1968), a Canadian-born (of English and Irish descent) concertmistress at the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra,[3] and Charles Patrick Short (1909–1970), a corporate executive at the Canadian steel company Stelco who had immigrated from Crossmaglen, South Armagh, Ireland as a stowaway during the Irish War of Independence.[4][5]
Short and his siblings—three older brothers, David, Michael, and Brian, and one older sister, Nora[6]—were raised as Catholics.[7] His eldest brother, David, was killed in a car accident in Montréal in 1962 when Short was 12.
Encouraged by his mother in his early creative endeavours,[7] Short attended Westdale Secondary School and then graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work in 1971.[8] In the meantime, his mother died of cancer in 1968; his father died two years later, of complications from a stroke.[9]
His brother, Michael, would go on to become a comedy writer: also spending time at Second City Television (SCTV) and is 17 times nominee and three times winner of an Emmy Award for comedy sketch writing.[10]
Career[edit]
1972–1976: Early theatrical and television work in Canada[edit]
As Short was about to graduate from McMaster University, rather than immediately pursuing a career in social work, he moved to Toronto with intention of temporarily giving acting a shot.[11] Right away, in March 1972, he landed his first piece of paid work as an actor: playing a plastic credit card inside a woman's purse in a Chargex television commercial.[11] He was then cast by Stephen Schwartz for the new 1972 production of the Broadway hit Godspell being prepared at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre.[2] Among other members of that production's cast were Victor Garber, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Jayne Eastwood, and Gerry Salsberg; Paul Shaffer was the musical director.[12] As stated by Short in his 2014 memoir as well as in the 2018 documentary Love, Gilda, he and Gilda Radner dated each other on and off during that time.[13]
Short subsequently found work in several Canadian television shows and theatrical productions. These included being cast for the role of a tough, sexually predatory prison inmate in the 1972 staging of John Herbert's drama Fortune and Men's Eyes that had the upstart twenty-two-year-old actor commuting back to his hometown Hamilton, Ontario.[12][13] With the success of Godspell at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in downtown Toronto, by late 1972, the production moved uptown to the Bayview Playhouse where it ran for 488 performances.[14] Young Short's increased stage profile led to a guest spot on Right On, a teen-focused live program airing weekly in the after-school timeslot on the government-funded CBC TV.[15] He also played the role of Smokey the Hare on the TVOntario daytime kids' program Cucumber.
In June 1973, with Godspell winding down and Chicago's Second City improv comedy theatre starting up a sister company in Toronto, many of Short's Godspell peers (his girlfriend Radner, in addition to Levy, Eastwood, and Salsberg) as well as the rest of his social circle (Valri Bromfield and Dan Aykroyd) successfully joined the new troupe's first cast.[11] Short, on the other hand, resisted auditioning due to feeling a "phobia of being funny on demand" and considering himself a "traditional song-and-dance performer".[11]
In 1974, Short was hired as a writer on Everything Goes, a nightly variety show hosted by Norm Crosby, Mike Darow, and Catherine McKinnon. Produced by and aired on Global Television Network, broadcasting only to Southern Ontario as a newly launched regional grouping of television stations, the show lasted less than six months before being cancelled.