Martin Hayter Short (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian comedian, actor, singer, and writer. He 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. His awards include two Primetime Emmy Awards, two SAG Best Actor Awards, and a Tony Award. Short was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 2019.
Short is known for his work on the television programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live. He created the characters Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley. He acted in the sitcom Mulaney (2014–2015), the variety series Maya & Marty (2016), and the drama series 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.
Short has acted in comedy films such as Three Amigos (1986), Innerspace (1987), Three Fugitives (1989), Father of the Bride (1991), Captain Ron (1992), Clifford (1994), Father of the Bride Part II (1995), Mars Attacks! (1996), Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), Mumford (1999), and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006). He voiced roles in The Pebble and the Penguin (1995), The Prince of Egypt (1998), Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), Treasure Planet (2002), Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), Frankenweenie (2012), and The Wind Rises (2013). He also voiced the Cat in the Hat in the PBS Kids series The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (2010–2013).
In 2015, Short started touring nationally with the comedian Steve Martin. In 2018, they released their Netflix special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, which received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Since 2021, Short has co-starred in the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building with Martin and Selena Gomez. For his performance he has earned nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award, the Golden Globe Award, and a Critics' Choice Television Award, and won a SAG Award.
Early life and education Short was born Martin Hayter Short on March 26, 1950, in Hamilton, Ontario, the youngest of five children of Olive Grace (née Hayter), a Canadian-born concertmistress of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, and Charles Patrick Short, a corporate executive at the Canadian steel company Stelco, who had emigrated from Crossmaglen, Northern Ireland, as a stowaway during the Irish War of Independence."Martin Short Biography" Hello Magazine, accessed August 26, 2013"Profile" , The Toronto Star Short has described his father's heavy drinking.
Short and his siblings—David, Michael, Brian, and Nora—were raised as Catholics. His eldest brother, David, was killed in a car accident in Montreal in 1962, when Short was 12.
Encouraged by his mother in his early creative endeavours, Short attended Westdale Secondary School and graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work in 1971. In the meantime, his mother died of cancer in 1968 and his father died two years later of complications from a stroke.
His brother, Michael, became a comedy writer, also spending time at Second City Television (SCTV), and is a 17-time nominee and three-time winner of an Emmy Award for comedy sketch writing.
Career 1972–1976: Early theatrical and Canadian television work Just as Short was about to graduate from McMaster University, he moved to Toronto to temporarily give acting a shot rather than immediately pursue a career in social work. 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. He was then cast by Stephen Schwartz in the 1972 production of the Broadway hit Godspell at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre. 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. As Short wrote in his 2014 memoir, he and Gilda Radner dated each other on and off during that time.
Short subsequently found work in several Canadian television shows and theatrical productions. These included being cast for the role of a tough and predatory prison inmate in the 1972 staging of John Herbert's drama Fortune and Men's Eyes. Appearing in this role involved the 21-year-old actor commuting to and from his hometown of Hamilton. By late 1972, with the success of Godspell at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in downtown Toronto, the production moved uptown to the Bayview Playhouse where it ran for 488 performances. 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. 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, including Radner, Levy, Eastwood, Salsberg, Valri Bromfield and Dan Aykroyd, joined the new troupe's first cast. Short resisted auditioning due to feeling a "phobia of being funny on demand" and considered himself a "traditional song-and-dance performer".
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 and aired on the newly launched Global Television Network, the show was broadcast only to the Southern Ontario region and lasted less than six months before being cancelled.
1977–1985: SCTV and SNL stardom
Short was encouraged to pursue comedy by McMaster classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas. In March 1977, Short joined the improvisation group the Second City in Toronto, taking over from John Candy in The Wizard of Ossington, their ninth revue.Martin Short's Autobiography "I Must Say"
In early 1978, Short secured his feature film debut via a supporting role in the Melvin Frank-directed British romantic comedy, Lost and Found, starring George Segal and Glenda Jackson. Filmed throughout the late winter and early spring of 1978 in Banff National Park and Toronto, the film saw a limited North American release in June 1979 and was met with lukewarm reviews and poor box office returns.Epstein, Andrew (April 27, 1980). "The Big Thuds of 1979—Films That Flopped, Badly". Los Angeles Times. Calendar, p. 6.
In 1979, after working solely in Canada for the previous seven years, Short landed a starring role in the American sitcom The Associates, about a group of 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."Martin Short Biography" tcmdb tcm.com, accessed August 26, 2013 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.
SCTV
Short achieved wider public notice when the Toronto Second City group produced a show for television, Second City Television (SCTV), which ran for several years in Canada and then later in the United States. Appearing on SCTV in 1982–83, Short developed several characters before moving on to Saturday Night Live for the 1984–85 season:
Aged songwriter Irving Cohen, previously thought to be loosely based on American composers Irving Caesar and/or Irving Berlin and perhaps Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen, but actually (according to Short in his autobiography) inspired by Sophie Tucker Defense attorney Nathan Thurm Albino Vegas singer Jackie Rogers Jr. and his father, Jackie Rogers Sr., the latter of whom was mauled to death by a mountain lion during a comeback special that took place in the woods. Oddball man-child Ed Grimley, later featured on SNL and in his own short-lived animated television series, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley. The show, which was produced by Hanna-Barbera, aired for a single season in the fall of 1988 and remains the only animated series adapted from both an SCTV and Saturday Night Live character to date.
Saturday Night Live
Short joined Saturday Night Live (SNL) for the 1984–85 season."Martin Short Characters, Impressions and Guest Appearances" snl.jt.org, accessed August 25, 2013 He helped revive the show with his many characters for season ten, the last season produced by Dick Ebersol. "Short's appearance on SNL helped to revive the show's fanbase, which had flagged after the departure of Eddie Murphy, and in turn, would launch his successful career in films and television." His SNL characters included numerous holdovers from his SCTV days, most notably Ed Grimley, a geeky everyman who is obsessed with Wheel of Fortune, plays the triangle, and often finds himself in bizarre situations. He also did impressions of such celebrities as Jerry Lewis and Katharine Hepburn.
Since then he has made multiple appearances on the show, including the SNL Christmas specials in 2012 and 2024 and Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special in 2015.
1986–1999: TV specials, film roles and Broadway debut In addition to his work on SCTV and SNL, Short has starred in several television specials and series. In 1985, he starred in the one-hour Showtime special Martin Short: Concert for the North Americas."Martin Short Concert For the North Americas" tcm.com, accessed August 26, 2013. This was Short's first live concert, interspersed with studio sketches and a wraparound featuring Jackie Rogers Jr. Co-produced by the CBC, it aired as The Martin Short Comedy Special in Canada in March 1986. In 1989, Short headlined another one-hour comedy special for HBO called I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood, a sendup of all things Hollywood. It featured many of his characters, including Ed Grimley and Jackie Rogers Jr."I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood" tcm.com, accessed August 26, 2013 In 1994, Short hosted the television show The Martin Short Show and in 1995 a sketch comedy show, The Show Formerly Known as the Martin Short Show. In 1998, he played the character Frik in the TV miniseries Merlin. In 1999, he appeared as Lionel Dillard in Lawrence Kasdan's comedy-drama Mumford. The syndicated version of The Martin Short Show ran from 1999 to 2000."Martin Short Biography" movies.yahoo.com (googleusercontent.com), accessed August 26, 2013.
Short starred in films such as Three Amigos (1986), Innerspace (1987), The Big Picture (1989), Three Fugitives (1989; directed by Francis Veber and starring Nick Nolte and James Earl Jones), Pure Luck (1991; directed by Nadia Tass, starring Danny Glover and Sheila Kelley"Martin Short Filmography" movies.nytimes.com, accessed August 25, 2013), Captain Ron (1992), and Clifford (1994). Short was also the memorable scene-stealing character "Franck" in the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride and its sequel in 1995.
In 1996, he appeared in Tim Burton's sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! as the lascivious press secretary Jerry Ross. In 1997, he starred in A Simple Wish as male fairy godmother Murray. Also in 1997, he appeared as Wall Street broker Richard Kempster in Jungle 2 Jungle with Tim Allen.Deming, Mark. " 'Jungle 2 Jungle' Review" The New York Times archive, accessed October 28, 2021