Martin Short

Martin Short

Martin Hayter Short OC 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, Innerspace, Three Fugitives, Father of the Bride, and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. Short has also had an active career on stage, starring in the Broadway plays The Goodbye Girl and Little Me.

About Martin Short in brief

Summary Martin ShortMartin Hayter Short OC 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, Innerspace, Three Fugitives, Father of the Bride, and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. Short has also had an active career on stage, starring in the Broadway plays The Goodbye Girl and Little Me. The latter earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the former a nomination in the same category. Short also provided voice-work for films The Prince of Egypt, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Madagascar 3:  Europe’s Most Wanted, and the PBS series The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! as the title character. He helped revive the show with his many characters for season ten of SNL. Since then he has made multiple appearances on the show, including the 40th Anniversary Special in 2015. He also did impressions of celebrities such as Jerry Lewis and Katharine Hepburn. In 1989, Short headlined a live concert for the North Americas: This was Martin Short: The Comedy Special in Canada. In 2011, he starred in the one-hour Showtime special, The Martin Short Comedy Special, featuring Jackie Rogers Jr. and Jackie Rogers, featuring sketches and a live interspersed with a studio wraparound with a live performance by Martin Short.

The special was produced by the CBC and aired in Canada in March 1986. 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. His mother was of English and Irish descent. His eldest brother, David, was killed in a car accident in Montréal, Québec in 1962 when Short was 12. Short attended Westdale Secondary School and graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work in 1971. 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. He was encouraged to pursue comedy by McMaster classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas, whom he joined in the improvisation group The Second City in Toronto, Ontario, in 1977. Short appeared on SCTV in 1982–83. At SCTV, Short developed several characters before moving on to Saturday night Live for the 1984–85 season. He worked solely in Canada through 1979. In 1979, Short starred in US 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.