Martin Short (racing Driver)

Martin Hayter Short (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and writer. He has received various awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. Short was awarded as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019.

He is known for his work on the television programs '' SCTV'' and ''Saturday Night Live''. Short created the characters Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley. He also acted in the sitcom ''Mulaney'' (2014–2015), the variety series ''Maya & Marty'' (2016), and '' 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.

He has starred in comedy films such as ''Three Amigos'' (1986), ''Innerspace'' (1987), ''Three Fugitives'' (1989), ''Father of the Bride'' (1991), ''Captain Ron'' (1992), ''Clifford'' (1994), ''Mars Attacks!'' (1996), ''Jungle 2 Jungle'' (1997), and '' The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause'' (2006). Short also provided voice-work for films like ''The Pebble and the Penguin'' (1995), ''The Prince of Egypt'' (1998), '' Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius'' (2001)'', Treasure Planet'' (2002), '' 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure'' (2003), ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'' (2008), '' Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted'', '' Frankenweenie'' (both 2012), and ''The Wind Rises'' (2013).

In 2015, Short started touring nationally with fellow comedian Steve Martin. In 2018, they released their Netflix special ''An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life'' for which they received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Directors Guild of America Award nomination. Since 2021, he has co-starred in the Hulu comedy series ''Only Murders in the Building'' alongside Martin and Selena Gomez. For his performance he has earned nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Critics Choice Television Award.

Early life and education

Short was born on March 26, 1950, in Hamilton, Ontario, the youngest of five children of Olive Grace (née Hayter; 1913–1968), a concertmistress of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, and Charles Patrick Short (1909–1970), a corporate executive with Stelco, a Canadian steel company. He and his siblings were raised as Catholics. He had three older brothers, David (now deceased), Michael, and Brian, and one older sister, Nora. Short's father was an Irish Catholic emigrant from Crossmaglen, South Armagh in Northern Ireland, who came to North America as a stowaway during the Irish War of Independence. Short's mother was of English and Irish descent. She encouraged his early creative endeavours. His eldest brother, David, was killed in a car accident in Montréal in 1962 when Short was 12. His mother died of cancer in 1968; his father died two years later, of complications from a stroke. Short attended Westdale Secondary School and graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work in 1971. His brother, Michael, is a comedy writer, was also at Second City Television (SCTV) and is 17 times nominee and three times winner of an Emmy Award for comedy sketch writing.

Career

1972–1976: Early work

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 the 1972 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."Martin Short Milestones at TCM"
tcm.com, accessed August 26, 2013 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). 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. In 1980, he joined the cast of ''I'm a Big Girl Now'', a sitcom starring Diana Canova and Danny Thomas."Martin Short Biography at TCM"
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.

1977–1985: Breakout in sketch comedy

''Second City Television''

Short 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. He came to public notice when the group produced a show for television, ''Second City Television'' (''SCTV''), which ran for several years in Canada, then the United States. 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:

* Aged songwriter Irving Cohen, commonly 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 which 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 entitled ''The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley''. The show, which was produced by Hanna-Barbera and aired for a single season in fall 1988, is the only animated series adapted from an ''SCTV'' character and a ''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 one 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, his Ed Grimley character, depicted on ''Saturday Night Live'' as a geeky everyman who is obsessed with ''Wheel of Fortune'', plays the triangle, and often finds himself in bizarre situations rather than a miscast bad actor in several film and TV show parodies (''The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley'' used the ''SNL'' characterization of him rather than the ''SCTV'' take on him). He also did impressions of such celebrities as Jerry Lewis and Katharine Hepburn.

Since then he has made multiple appearances on the show including on the SNL Christmas special in 2012 and ''Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special'' in 2015.

1986–1999: Film roles and Broadway debut

In addition to his 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 was 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 Ed Grimley and Jackie Rogers Jr.

After doing sketch comedy for several years, Short starred in ''Three Amigos'', ''Innerspace'', '' The Big Picture'', ''Captain Ron'', ''Clifford'', ''Three Fugitives'' (1989), directed by Francis Veber, with Nick Nolte and James Earl Jones; he was the memorable scene-stealing character "Franck" in the 1991 remake of ''Father of the Bride'' and its sequel; and in ''Pure Luck'' (1991), directed by Nadia Tass, with Danny Glover and Sheila Kelley."Martin Short Filmography"
movies.nytimes.com, accessed August 25, 2013

Short resumed work in the theatre, 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."Martin Short Broadway Credits and Awards"
playbillvault.com, accessed November 6, 2016 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.

In 1996, he appeared in Tim Burton's sci-fi comedy ''Mars Attacks!'' as lascivious Press Secretary Jerry Ross. In 1997, he appeared as Wall Street broker Richard Kempster in ''Jungle 2 Jungle'', with Tim Allen. Short has had three television 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'', which ran from 1999 to 2000."Martin Short Biography"
movies.yahoo.com (googleusercontent.com), accessed August 26, 2013

2000–2011: ''Primetime Glick''

Short starred as Jiminy Glick on Comedy Central's ''Primetime Glick'' (2001–2003). He interviewed performers and celebrities as the character Jiminy Glick. The ''New York Times'' in 2002 referred to the character as "the most unpredictable and hilariously uninhibited comic creation to hit TV since Bart Simpson was in diapers." In 2004, he wrote and starred in ''Jiminy Glick in Lalawood'' with Jan Hooks as his wife, Dixie Glick. 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. 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. 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.

In 2006, he starred in another film with Tim Allen, '' The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause''. In addition to his own series, Short has guest starred on several shows including ''Arrested Development'' (episode titled "Ready, Aim, Marry Me", 2005), ''Muppets Tonight'' (1996)," 'Muppets Tonight' Martin Short"
tv.com, accessed August 26, 2013 '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', and '' Weeds''. He joined the FX drama ''Damages'' as lawyer Leonard Winstone in 2010.Clark, Cindy
"Something new for Short: A regular TV role on 'Damages'"
''USA Today'', January 24, 2010 Short also provided the voices of several animated film characters, such as Stubbs in '' We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story'', Hubie in ''The Pebble and the Penguin'', Huy in ''The Prince of Egypt'', Ooblar in '' Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius'', B.E.N. in ''Treasure Planet'', Preminger in ''Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper'', Thimbletack the Brownie in ''The Spiderwick Chronicles'', Stefano the sea lion in '' Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted'', Kurokawa in the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki's ''The Wind Rises'', and The Jester in '' Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return''.

Short was the host of the defunct Walt Disney World attractions '' O Canada!'', a Circle-Vision 360° film in the Epcot theme park's Canada pavilion, and " The Making of Me" at Epcot's Wonders of Life pavilion, a 15-minute film about how pregnancy occurs. 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. 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, Rachael 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.

2013–2019: Stand-up tour with Steve Martin

Short voiced the Cat in the Hat in the animated TV series ''The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!'', which aired from 2010 to 2013.Valiquette, Mike
"Press release: Daytime Emmy noms for Canadian-produced 'Cat in the Hat'"
May 11, 2011 He later voiced the character in a number of related TV specials in 2014 and 2016. He shot a new comedy special for television in Toronto in September 2011. The special, ''I, Martin Short, Goes Home, Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, and Fred Willard. The special aired on CBC Television on April 3, 2012, and garnered Short a nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Program or Series at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards

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