Martin Short
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short CMis a Canadian-American actor, comedian, writer, voice actor, singer and producer. 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, Pure Luck, Father of the Bride Part II, Mars Attacks!and Jungle 2 Jungle, and created the characters Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley. He has won a Tony Award for Leading Actor in a Musical...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth26 March 1950
CityHamilton, Canada
CountryUnited States of America
Someone once asked me what was the weirdest question I was ever asked. And I was stymied.
You go through publicists because it's easy for a publicist to say to another publicist, 'No'.
A few years ago, I won a Tony for Little Me and I learned two important lessons from that experience. 1. Fair-weather friends are so much more interesting to be around and 2. It's amazing what this award fetches on E-Bay.
I still do live concerts all over the country - about four a month - with singing and characters and improv. It keeps me limber. I'll never lose that. And comedy is still the bread and butter.
I'm an actor who loves doing comedy.
One of my great influences was Don Knotts as Barney Fife.
I think I'm funny because my family, my siblings were funny.
I think I've been really lucky to keep my career so varied, and to be open. There's safety in repetition, but there's also a trap there.
There was an era when people would turn on their radio and hear a radio drama. Now, you could be as scared by that as seeing it filmed. In those days, people used to sit by the fire and imagine what they were hearing. Everything is its own art form.
An actor can spew out thoughts, but they're not all gold.
When you start a new project and they say, "Your director is going to be Joe Blo," you're hoping that Joe Blo will be the next Martin Scorsese, but it doesn't always work out that way.
All you're trying to do in an improvisation is get as much material as possible for the editing room.
[Ed Grimley] lives in a retirement home in New Jersey. It's called the Retirement Home in New Jersey for Characters Who Were Interesting in the '80s for About an Hour. He's there with the Whiners, Gumby and Jon Lovitz's 'That's the ticket' guy.
When you have to worry about paying the rent, you're never bored. You're just happy to have that job. But once you don't have to worry and reach the point where it's no longer about the money, you're able to look at other opportunities outside of your comfort zone.