Martin Short Age, Height, Partner, Net Worth & Biography

Martin Short is a Canadian actor and comedian best known as Oliver Putnam in Only Murders in the Building, as Franck Eggelhoffer in Father of the Bride and as a cast member of SCTV and Saturday Night Live. Born on March 26, 1950, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Short, 76, has been making audiences laugh for more than fifty years, with characters such as Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick, and he remains a beloved figure in comedy.

Quick Facts

Who Is Martin Short?

Martin Short is an actor and comedian whose characters have become a part of popular culture. As Oliver Putnam, a struggling Broadway director who investigates murders in his apartment building, in Only Murders in the Building (2021-), alongside Steve Martin and Selena Gomez, Short plays a man who is desperate, funny and, in the end, deeply loyal, and the role has earned him nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award and the Golden Globe Award. He is also known as Franck Eggelhoffer, the flamboyant wedding planner, in Father of the Bride (1991) and its sequel, and as a cast member of SCTV (1982-1983) and Saturday Night Live (1984-1985), where he created characters such as Ed Grimley and Jackie Rogers Jr.

Beyond those roles, Short has shown a wide range. He played Lucky Day, one of three silent film stars who are mistaken for heroes, in Three Amigos (1986), alongside Steve Martin and Chevy Chase, and he played Jack Putter, a man who has a miniature pilot inside his body, in Innerspace (1987). He starred in Clifford (1994), in Mars Attacks! (1996), and in The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), in which he played Jack Frost. He has won two Tony Awards, for Little Me (1998) and for The Goodbye Girl (1993), and he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, for his work on SCTV and for AFI Life Achievement Award: Mel Brooks (2014).

Early Life & Background

Martin Hayter Short was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the son of Olive, a concertmistress of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra, and Charles Patrick Short, an executive at the Stelco steel company. He was the youngest of five children, and he grew up in Hamilton, where he attended Westdale Secondary School. He went on to study social work at McMaster University in Hamilton, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971, and he began performing in theatre, appearing in a production of Godspell in Toronto in 1972, alongside Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy and other future comedy stars.

He made his acting debut on television, playing in Right On (1972), and he appeared in The David Steinberg Show (1972-1973). He was cast in SCTV in 1982, as a cast member of the Canadian sketch comedy show, and he became known for characters such as Ed Grimley, a nerdy man with a distinctive hairstyle, and Jackie Rogers Jr., a talk-show host. He joined Saturday Night Live in 1984, for one season, and he went on to work in Three Amigos, in Innerspace, and in Father of the Bride, which brought him to wide attention as a film actor.

Career

Short’s career in film includes Tales of the Unexpected (1979), Three Amigos, Innerspace, Cross My Heart (1987), Three Fugitives (1989), Father of the Bride, Captain Ron (1992), Clifford, Mars Attacks!, Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, and Inherent Vice (2014). He has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, for SCTV Network 90 (1982) and for AFI Life Achievement Award: Mel Brooks, and he has won two Tony Awards, for Best Actor in a Musical for Little Me and for The Goodbye Girl.

On television, Short has played in SCTV, in Saturday Night Live, in The Martin Short Show (1994), in Primetime Glick (2001-2003), in which he played Jiminy Glick, a celebrity interviewer, in Damages (2010), in Mulaney (2014-2015), and in Only Murders in the Building, in which he stars as Oliver Putnam. He was married to Nancy Dolman, an actress, from 1980 until her death in 2010, and they adopted three children together: Katherine, Oliver and Henry. He is known for his work as a comedian, as an actor, and for a career that has lasted for more than fifty years.

Facts About Martin Short

• He stars as Oliver Putnam in Only Murders in the Building (2021-).
• He played Franck Eggelhoffer in Father of the Bride (1991) and Lucky Day in Three Amigos (1986).
• He created the characters Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick on SCTV and Primetime Glick.
• He has won two Tony Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
• He was married to Nancy Dolman from 1980 until her death in 2010, and they adopted three children together.

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