Martin Short

**Martin Hayter Short** OC (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian–American actor, comedian, singer, and writer. He is known for his work on the television programs *SCTV* and *Saturday Night Live*. He has starred in comedy films such as *Three Amigos* (1986), *Innerspace* (1987), *Three Fugitives* (1989), *Father of the Bride* (1991), *Pure Luck* (1991), *Captain Ron* (1992), *Father of the Bride Part II* (1995), *Mars Attacks!* (1996), *Jungle 2 Jungle* (1997), and *The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause* (2006). Short created the characters Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley.

Short also provided voice-work for films *The Prince of Egypt* (1998), *Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius* (2001), *The Spiderwick Chronicles* (2008), *Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted* (2012) and the PBS series *The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!* (2010–2019) as the title character. He has also had an active career on stage, starring in the Broadway plays *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.

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Early life ==
Short was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the youngest of five children of Olive Grace (née Hayter; 1913–1968), a concertmistress of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra,[3] and Charles Patrick Short (1909–1970), a corporate executive with Stelco, a Canadian steel company. He and his siblings were raised as Catholics.[4] He had three older brothers, David (now deceased), Michael, and Brian, and one older sister, Nora.[5][6] Short's father was an Irish Catholic emigrant from Crossmaglen, South Armagh, who came to North America as a stowaway during the Irish War of Independence.[7][8] Short's mother was of English and Irish descent. She encouraged his early creative endeavours.[4] His eldest brother, David, was killed in a car accident in Montréal, Québec in 1962 when Short was 12. His mother died of cancer in 1968, his father two years later of complications from a stroke.[9]

Short attended Westdale Secondary School and graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work in 1971.[10]

## Career

### **Early career**

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.[2] 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.[11] Short stated in the documentary *Love, Gilda* that he and Gilda Radner dated each other on and off during that time.

He was subsequently cast in several television shows and plays, including the drama *Fortune and Men's Eyes* (1972).[11] He worked solely in Canada through 1979. In 1979, Short starred in the US sitcom *The Associates* about a group of young novice lawyers working at a Wall Street law firm.[12] In 1980, he joined the cast of *I'm a Big Girl Now*, a sitcom starring Diana Canova and Danny Thomas.[13] 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.