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Martin Short
Hosting Broadway on Broadway (September 2006)
Born	Martin Hayter Short (1950-03-26) March 26, 1950 (age 62) Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Residence	Pacific Palisades, California
Nationality	Canadian, American
Education	Westdale Secondary School
Alma mater	McMaster University
Occupation	Comedian, actor, screenwriter, singer, producer, voice actor
Years active	1972–present
Home town	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Spouse	Nancy Dolman (1980–2010; deceased)
Children	3

Martin Hayter Short, CM (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, writer, singer 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, Innerspace, Pure Luck, Jungle 2 Jungle, Mars Attacks!, Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride Part II and created the characters of Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley.

Early life[link]

Short, the youngest of five children, was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the son 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 Catholic.^[1] He had three older brothers, David (now deceased), Michael, and Brian, and one older sister, Nora.^[2][3]

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.^[4][5] Short's mother, who was the concertmaster of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, encouraged Martin's early creative endeavours.^[1] 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; and, two years later in 1969, his father died of complications from a stroke.^[6]

Short attended Westdale Secondary School and graduated in 1972 from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work.^[7]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

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 intense topical drama Fortune and Men's Eyes. 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. 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.

[edit] SCTV

Short was encouraged to pursue comedy by McMaster classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas, whom he joined at improv troupe The Second City in Toronto in 1977. Short came to public notice when the troupe produced a show for television, Second City Television or SCTV, which ran for several years in Canada, then the United States. At SCTV Short developed several characters before moving on to Saturday Night Live for the 1984–1985 season:^[8]

• 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
• Defense attorney Nathan Thurm
• Oddball man-child Ed Grimley, later featured in his own animated television series, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley

[edit] Saturday Night Live

At SNL, Short helped revive the show with his many characters after Eddie Murphy left. Short's SNL characters included Wheel of Fortune fan Ed Grimley, which he borrowed from his SCTV days. The Grimley character became 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 and TV.

Television[link]

In addition to his revered work on SCTV and SNL, Short has starred in several television specials and series of his own. In 1985, Short starred in the one-hour Showtime special, Martin Short: Concert for the North Americas. This is Short's first live concert, interspersed with studio sketches and a wraparound featuring Jackie Rogers Jr. Co-produced by the CBC, this aired as The Martin Short Comedy Special in Canada in March 1986. In 1989, Short headlined another one-hour comedy special, this time for HBO, I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood, Short's classic send-up of all things Hollywood. It featured many of his characters including: Lawrence Orbach, Ed Grimley, Jackie Rogers Jr, Bradley P. Allen, Troy Soren, and Dale O'Day (the dancing fence); released on VHS, it is now out of print.^{[citation needed]}

Short has had no fewer than three shows called The Martin Short Show, including a sitcom (The Martin Short Show, 1994), a sketch comedy show (The Show Formerly Known as the Martin Short Show, 1995), and a syndicated talk show (The Martin Short Show, 1999). Short starred as Jiminy Glick on Comedy Central's Primetime Glick (2001–03). In addition to his own series, Short has guest starred on several shows including Arrested Development, Muppets Tonight, Law & Order: SVU, Weeds and most recently in a critically acclaimed turn as Leonard Winstone on FX's Damages. As of August 2010, Short is the voice of the Cat in the Hat in The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! on the Public Broadcasting Service.

Short recently shot a new comedy special for television in Toronto (in September 2011).^[9] The special, "I, Martin Short, Goes Home" follows Martin's return to his native Hamilton, Ontario and has a cast that includes Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty and Fred Willard. The special aired on CBC television on April 3, 2012 at 9:00pm EDT.

In 2011, Short joined the cast of How I Met Your Mother for its seventh season, playing Marshall Eriksen's manic boss.^[10] He is a judge on the upcoming Canadian reality show Canada's Got Talent.

Film[link]

After doing sketch comedy for several years, Short focused on film—appearing in ¡Three Amigos!, Innerspace, The Big Picture, Captain Ron, Clifford, and the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride and its sequel. In 1996, he appeared in Tim Burton's sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! as image-obsessed, hormonally driven Press Secretary Jerry Ross.

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 Wall Street broker Richard Kempster in Jungle 2 Jungle alongside Tim Allen. In 2006, he starred in another movie with Tim Allen, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. Short was in Pure Luck, directed by Nadia Tass, with Danny Glover and Sheila Kelley^[11] and in Three Fugitives, directed by Francis Veber, with Nick Nolte and James Earl Jones. Short also provided the voices of several animated film characters, such as Huy in The Prince of Egypt (alongside Steve Martin as Hotep), Stubbs in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Hubie in The Pebble and the Penguin, B.E.N. in Treasure Planet, Ooblar in Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Thimbletack the Brownie in The Spiderwick Chronicles.^{[citation needed]}

On August 31, 2007, he appeared as the new host of O Canada!, a 360° Circlevision film premiering at Walt Disney World's EPCOT theme park.^{[citation needed]}

He is cast as Stefano the sea lion in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.

Stage[link]

Short resumed work in the theater, playing a lead role in the 1993 musical version of the Neil Simon film The Goodbye Girl, on Broadway, receiving a Tony Award nomination and an Outer Critics Circle Award.^[12][13]

He had the lead role in the 1999 Broadway revival of the musical Little Me, for which he received a Tony Award and another Outer Critics Circle Award.^[14][15][16]

In 2003, Short took to the stage once again in the critically acclaimed Los Angeles run of The Producers. Short played the role of the accountant, Leo Bloom, opposite Jason Alexander's Max Bialystock.^[17][18] Although the role of Leo Bloom was originated on Broadway by Matthew Broderick, Mel Brooks first approached Short about doing the part opposite Nathan Lane.^[19] On the subject, Short has stated in numerous interviews that, while he was thrilled by the opportunity, the idea of having to move his family from their Los Angeles home to New York for a year was less than ideal and ultimately proved a deal-breaker.

Short performed in his satirical one-man show, with a 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, prior to opening on Broadway in August 2006; the show closed in January 2007. In it, he performed his classic characters Grimley, Cohen, and Glick.^[20][21]

As Glick, Short brought a member of the audience (usually a celebrity) on stage and interviewed him or her. Jerry Seinfeld was the guest on opening night. 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, Rachel Ray, 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.^[22]

Short has continued to tour in his one-man show, which features many of his best-loved characters and sketches. In addition to Fame Becomes Me, some of the titles Short has used for his one-man show include Stroke Me Lady Fame, If I'd Saved, I Wouldn't Be Here, and, in more conservative markets, Sunday in the Park with George Michael. Short revealed in March 2011 that he plans to write a memoir, covering his 40 year career in show business.^[9]

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

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^[23] and raise her family. Nancy Dolman Short died August 21, 2010, from ovarian cancer.^[24] Short and Dolman have three children: Katherine (1983), Oliver (1986), and Henry (1990).^[25]

Short and his family make their home in Pacific Palisades, California. Short also has a home on Lake Rosseau in Ontario.^[26] He is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Short has two stars on Canada's Walk of Fame.^[27] His brother Michael Short is a comedy writer and twice winner of the Emmy Award for comedy sketch writing.

Extended family[link]

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 and Joe. Dolman and Martin have since divorced.^[28]

Short is a first cousin of Clare Short, a former member of the British Parliament and former British cabinet minister.^[29]

Awards and honours[link]

• 1972: Bachelor of Arts in social work: McMaster University
• 1982: Nelly Award: Outstanding Writing, SCTV Comedy Network
• 1983: Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program, SCTV Comedy Network; award shared
• 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
• 2010: Emmy Awards Nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Damages (TV Series)
• 2010: Satellite Awards Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Damages (TV Series)
• 2011: Emmy Awards Nominated for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (TV Series)

Filmography[link]

In-character quotes[link]

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• 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 Jimminy Glick (talking about his past, moreso his weight problem) : "I was a loner as a child, a loner as a child because people would point, and children can be cruel."
• 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!"
• As Nathan Thurm (after being disproved): "I know that! You don't think I know that?"
• As Nathan Thurm (talking to the audience about his interviewer): "Is it me, or is it him? It's him, right?"

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martin Short

• Martin Short at the Internet Broadway Database
• Martin Short at the Internet Movie Database
• Martin Short at Godspell.ca
• Northern Stars: Martin Short

[edit] Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me

• Haun, Harry (August 16, 2006). "Playbill on Opening Night: Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me: Grist for the Glick Mill". Playbill.com. http://www.playbill.com/news/article/101527.html. 
• Photo Coverage: Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me Opens on BroadwayWorld.com