Martin Short's hidden heartbreak

He has been making film fans laugh for decades with fine comic timing and a charismatic personality to boot - and he's continuing to win over younger audiences today as one of Disney Plus's biggest stars.

But the bubbly and charming Hollywood titan Martin Short, 74, who has been part of a comedy double act with Steve Martin for decades, has battled unimaginable grief and tragedy in his personal life from a very young age.

As he dazzles fans as a washed-up theatre executive on Only Murders in the Building alongside his comedy partner and a new member of the gang, Selena Gomez, many of the younger viewers who have become followers of Short's comedic style may be unaware of the tragic childhood he overcame in order to reach stardom.

Short, who is originally from Hamilton, Canada, was orphaned at the young age of 20 and has suffered further loss in his adult life, too.

Despite experiencing more grief than many have in a lifetime by adolescence, Short has recently insisted he isn't 'screwed up' by the tragedy that beset his earlier years; instead arguing it made him stronger.

Short was born in March 1950 as the youngest of five children to Irish and English immigrants Olive Grace and Charles Patrick Short in the Canadian province of Ontario.

Speaking about his childhood with four older siblings in conversation with the Guardian, Short said being the youngest was 'the greatest position in the world' because people fawned over him - and joked it was impossible for him to have had low self esteem growing up. 

He had three brothers, David, Michael and Brian, and a sister, Nora. However, in 1962 when Short was just 12 years old, David, the oldest brother, died in a car accident in Montreal. 

Speaking when his memoir was published in 2014, he discussed writing about his brother's death.

'What you don't know when you start is how open you're going to be: what you're going to tell, what you're not going to tell, what you feel comfortable telling,' he told CBC News. 

He added that writing the memoir wasn't necessarily the 'cathartic' experience people may assume it might be.

Six years after David's sudden death, Martin also lost his mother Olive, who had been battling cancer for several years. He was 17 years old at the time.

Two years later, his father died following complications from a stroke. 

Despite being orphaned and having lost a sibling before he reached 20 years old, Short has long insisted the tragedy he endured in his younger years shaped him as he learnt to live with his grief.

'At 20, I knew things about life and death and tragedy and loss that none of my friends knew about. I don't know why this didn't screw me up,' he told the Hollywood Reporter last month.

'The only thing I can think of is that these kind of life stresses either empower you or defeat you.' 

He added the losses had helped him develop 'muscles' to deal with more challenging things later in life.

As he spends his days making people laugh with witty, avant-garde performances including the flamboyant wedding planner Franck Eggelhoffer in Father of the Bride or eccentric villain Jack Frost in The Santa Clause film franchise alongside Tim Allen, Emmy and Tony award-winning Short has also suggested that his performances have become more adventurous as a result of his experiences.

He said: 'I do think, in a weird way, it did make me braver as a performer, braver onstage' and explained he had fewer inhibitions when performing as a young and rising star because he didn't care what others thought of him.

And his outlook appears to have paid off. During his career, Short has triumphed on stage and screen; and most recently has teamed up with his comedy partner Steve Martin to dazzle audiences with Only Murders in the Building; one of the biggest hits on the Disney Plus streaming platform.

In 1972, Short met Nancy Dolman, a fellow actress, and the pair were married by 1980. 

Five years after the couple tied the knot, Nancy retired from showbusiness to become a stay-at-home mother, and the couple adopted three children; Henry, Katherine and Oliver. 

However, in 2010 tragedy struck once again in Short's life when Nancy, by then his wife of 30 years, passed away after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

At the time, Short's comedy partner Steve Martin dedicated a musical elegy for Nancy, called The Great Remember (For Nancy) on one of his albums.

Speaking in 2019 about Nancy, Short described his marriage to the actress as a 'triumph'. He admitted he still 'talks' to his late wife all the time and still feels her presence around him.

In an interview with AARP magazine, he said: 'With real tragedy, you become a little more daring. It's the yin to the yang: the positive part of life's dark side.'

He also previously told CBC his attitude to grief is: 'We go on.'

In his memoir, released in 2014, he described Nancy's death as 'by far the most awful thing I've been through.' 

And as he supported his children through the grief of losing their mother, Short drew from his own experiences.

Speaking to youngest son Henry the night before Nancy died, he told him: 'This will make you stronger. This will make you more determined.'

As Short and his children continue, 14 years on, to process their grief over Nancy, the actor has previously revealed the George Eliot quote that he holds dear when thinking about her.

'Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them,' he told the Hollywood reporter, before adding: 'We were together for 36 years. I didn’t want to forget Nancy.'