Martin Short

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

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[edit] Early life

Short was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and went to Westdale Secondary School. He later attended McMaster University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in social work in 1972.

[edit] Parents and siblings

Short is the youngest of five children. He is Roman Catholic, and of Irish descent, but often incorrectly identified as Jewish.[1] His brother, Michael Short, is a comedy writer and a two-time Emmy Award winner. His brother Brian is vice president of Dover Industries in Canada, and his sister Nora is an anesthesiologist.

His father was Charles Short, an executive with Canada's largest steel company, who came to North America as a stowaway Roman Catholic refugee from Belfast, Northern Ireland during the Troubles at age 21. His mother, Olive, a former child prodigy of the violin, was concertmaster of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. She was the first female concertmaster in North America. A cousin, Clare Short, is a member of the British Parliament.

Short lost several members of his family at an early age; brother David was killed in a car accident in 1962, when Short was 12, and he subsequently lost both parents (his mother in 1970, and father in 1972).

[edit] Career

Short graduated from McMaster University and intended to pursue a career in social work, but he became interested in acting once he was cast in a 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".

[edit] Sketch comedy

Short was encouraged to pursue comedy by McMasters classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas, both notable comedians in their own right. He joined Levy and Thomas at the Second City improv troupe in 1977. Short came to public notice when the troupe produced a show for television, 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, and also performed on Saturday Night Live for a season. [2]

[edit] Characters

Among Short's recurring characters:

  • Talk show host Jiminy Glick
  • Aged songwriter Irving Cohen
  • Spurious entertainer Jackie Rogers Jr.
  • Fey and flamboyant current-events commentator Troy Soren
  • Industrialist and art patron Bradley P. Allen
  • Defensive attorney Nathan Thurm
  • Oddball man-child Ed Grimley.

The Grimley character became perhaps Short's best known original character. He also was recognized for his impersonations of celebrities, including Jerry Lewis and Katherine Hepburn.

[edit] Other roles

After several years of focus on sketch comedy, Short focused on film roles, and appeared in several films, including Three Amigos, Innerspace, and the 1992 remake of Father of the Bride. He also resumed work in the theater; he took a role in the 1993 musical theater version of the Neil Simon work The Goodbye Girl. He had a lead role in the 1999 revival of the musical Little Me.

[edit] Current role

Short is currently performing in a 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 29th, 2006, and opened on August 17th. In it, he performs his aforementioned classic characters Grimley, Cohen, and Glick. The show also features parodies of many celebrities including Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Celine Dion, Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Tommy Tune, Joan Rivers, Britney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres, Renee Zellweger, Jodie Foster and Short's wife, actress Nancy Dolman.

[edit] Awards and other recognition

For his work, Short has received recognition, including several prestigious awards:

[edit] Personal life

Short met Canadian comic actress Nancy Dolman during the run of the 1972 production of Godspell. After that production, Short dated costar Radner, then began dating Dolman in 1974. The couple married in 1980. Dolman was most notable for her recurring role on the ABC cult sitcom "Soap", SCTV and "Custard Pie".

She retired from show business in 1985 to be a homemaker and full-time mother to her children. Short and his family make their home in Pacific Palisades, California, and Short has become a naturalized U.S. citizen (but also maintains his Canadian citizenship). They also have a home in the Ontario area of Muskoka Lake. [3]

[edit] Children

Short and Dolman have three children: Katherine Elizabeth (born December 3rd, 1983), Oliver Patrick (born 1986), and Henry (born 1990).

Katherine currently attends New York University. [4] and in 2003, was chosen to serve as Queen Shenandoah LXXVI for the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival. She is an aspiring actress. [5]

Oliver currently attends The University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business for marketing and film, television and theatre. He is an aspiring director/producer.[6]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Writer - Filmography

  • 1981 SCTV Network 90 TV series
  • 1983 SCTV Channel TV series
  • 1984 Saturday Night Live
  • 1985 Martin Short Concert for the North Americas
  • 1988 The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley TV series
  • 1989 I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood
  • 1994 The Martin Short Show TV series
  • 1999 The Martin Short Show TV series
  • 2001 Primetime Glick TV series
  • 2005 Jiminy Glick in La La Wood

appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm - HBO

[edit] Producer - Filmography

[edit] Director - Filmography

  • 1993 Friends of Gilda

[edit] Trivia

[edit] '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 Franck Eggelhoffer..."Everybody has party with a pooper, that's why we invited you, party pooper, GEORGE BANKS! That's who!"

[edit] External links

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