Martin Short

Comic actor Martin Short earned renown for submerging himself so completely inside his creations that several—including über-geek Ed Grimley, unctuous chat show host Jiminy Glick, second-string celebrity Jackie Rodgers, Jr., and heavily accented wedding planner Franck Eggelhoffer—became more instantly recognizable than the performer himself. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in 1950, he studied at nearby McMaster University and earned a social-work degree there in 1972. While still a student he cultivated a passion for music and theater; at his mother’s urging—she herself a onetime musician who had appeared with the Hamilton Symphony—he secured a part in the Toronto mounting of the musical Godspell in the same year he graduated. That production later served as a landmark for Canadian comedy, featuring Short alongside Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, and Andrea Martin, with Paul Shaffer acting as musical director. Guided by classmates from McMaster and fellow Godspell performers, Short kept pursuing acting and entered the Toronto company of the Second City improvisational troupe in 1977. When that ensemble supplied performers for the SCTV television series, Short joined its cast in 1983, after first appearing in a pair of short-lived American sitcoms.

He soon transferred to the Saturday Night Live ensemble in 1984, where his musical training proved useful for occasional song-and-dance segments on both SCTV and SNL. Following his departure from SNL he sustained an extended and prosperous run in film and television, yet he also carved out opportunities to return to the musical stage. In 1993 he took the lead in the Broadway adaptation of The Goodbye Girl; five years later he starred in a Broadway revival of Little Me that brought him a Tony Award. While in Los Angeles he portrayed Leo Bloom in the first West Coast staging of Mel Brooks’ The Producers and appeared in John Patrick Shanley’s Four Dogs and a Bone. In 2006 Short headlined the musical comedy revue Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, which completed a five-month Broadway engagement before touring successfully across several major American cities.