Martin Short’s tragic past after bubbly Hollywood actor was orphaned aged 20, lost his brother in a car accident, and wife Nancy Dolman to cancer – as his daughter Katherine dies by suicide
Martin Short’s eldest daughter Katherine Hartley Short tragically died at the age of 42 by suicide at her Los Angeles home on Monday.
Representatives for the 75-year-old comedy legend confirmed the devastating news in a statement to the Daily Mail.
It read: ‘It is with profound grief that we confirm the passing of Katherine Hartley Short. The Short family is devastated by this loss and asks for privacy at this time. Katherine was beloved by all and will be remembered for the light and joy she brought into the world.’
Behind Martin’s bubbly Hollywood charm, he has endured significant amounts of grief and heartbreak – with the death of his daughter Katherine, his brother David, both his parents and Nancy Dolan, his wife of 30 years.
He was also close friends with the late Catherine O’Hara, who died age 71 in January, and director Rob Reiner, who was murdered alongside his wife Michele last year.
The A-lister once bravely opened up about his many family losses, admitting that grief can either ’empower you or defeat you’.
Behind Martin Short’s bubbly Hollywood charm, he has endured significant amounts of grief and heartbreak – with the death of his daughter Katherine, his brother David, both his parents and Nancy Dolan, his wife of 30 years (pictured in 2024)
Martin’s eldest daughter Katherine Hartley Short tragically died at the age of 42 by suicide at her Los Angeles home on Monday (pictured together in 2008)
Two years before the death of his beloved daughter Katherine, he told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘All I know is that you only know your own life.
‘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.
‘The only thing I can think of is that these kind of life stresses either empower you or defeat you. But I think that by surviving all that and continuing on, I developed muscles to handle the disappointments in life.
‘And I do think, in a weird way, it did make me braver as a performer, braver onstage.
‘I’d try something, and if some people didn’t like it, I didn’t care because I didn’t know them. I was never doing this for the admiration of strangers. I was doing this to make my siblings and my friends laugh.’
Canada-born Martin’s first heartbreak came at the young age of 12, when his eldest brother David died in a car accident in 1992.
Martin 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.
He had three brothers, David, Michael and Brian, and a sister, Nora.
When Short was just 12 years old his brother David passed away after he was involved in a car accident. Short, second from left, pictured with his siblings David, Michael, Brian and Nora
Short’s parents (pictured) Olive Grace and Charles Patrick Short were British-Irish immigrants who settled in the Canadian province of Ontario
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. Martin was then orphaned at just 20 years old.
In 1972, Martin 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 Martin’s life when Nancy, by then his wife of 30 years, passed away after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
In 1972, Short met his wife, fellow actress Nancy Dolman, and the pair were married five years later
After the couple met, Dolman gave up acting to be a stay-at-home mother to their three adopted children
Short and Dolman, pictured in 1989 with their children Oliver and Katherine. They would go on to also adopt Henry
When Dolman passed away in 2010, Short told his youngest son Henry that his mother’s death would make him ‘stronger’
At the time, Martin’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, Martin 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, Martin 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.’
Martin’s tragedies have also entered his career, being close friends with the late O’Hara and Reiner.
Martin’s tragedies have also entered his career, being close friends with the late Catherine O’Hara and Reiner (pictured with Catherine in 2012)
He was also very close with late director Reiner, who was murdered alongside his wife Michele last year
Martin was amongst the group of Reiner’s closest friends who released a joint statement upon his death in December 2025.
Reiner and his wife Michele were found stabbed to death inside their $13.5 million Brentwood home on December 14.
‘His comedic touch was beyond compare, his love of getting the music of the dialogue just right, and his sharpening of the edge of a drama was simply elegant,’ the statement reads. ‘For the actors, he loved them. For the writers he made them better.’
‘From comedy to drama to ‘mockumentary’ to documentary he was always at the top of his game,’ they stated. ‘He charmed audiences. They trusted him. They lined up to see his films.’
More recently, Martin took a sweet moment to remember his late friend and co-star O’Hara following her death last month.
Hours after news broke that the Home Alone actress had passed away, Martin and his co-star Steve Martin raised a glass in a toast to her memory onstage during The Best of Steve Martin and Martin Short comedy show in Austin, Texas.
‘Catherine O’Hara, I met when she was 18 years of age,’ Martin said while holding up his champagne flute, as seen in a TikTok video posted by a member of the audience.
A photo of O’Hara taken in 2019 showed on the big screen behind them.
Katherine last pictured publicly celebrating her 40th birthday with her dad Martin Short at the Grand Master Recorders in 2023
‘And all these years later, she had been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with. So, God bless Catherine,’ he concluded.
During his career, Martin has triumphed on stage and screen; and most recently has teamed up with his comedy partner Steve Martin to dazzle audiences with Disney Plus’s Only Murders in the Building.
As Martin’s family tragedies resurfaced on social media following the death of his daughter Katherine, fans shared their condolences on X.
Tributes read: ‘He’s lost his parents, brother, wife, and now daughter. He was also close with Catherine O’Hara and Rob Reiner. This man has gone through so much. I can’t imagine the pain he’s in. I hope he’s surrounded by friends right now. My heart hurts for him’,
‘This man has buried almost everyone he’s ever loved and still shows up smiling for the rest of us. Some pain just breaks the math on parenting fixes everything. Sending him every ounce of light he’s given the world back’,
‘Parents, brother, wife, now daughter… this is beyond heartbreaking. Martin Short deserves all the support and love in the world right now. Praying he’s not alone’,
‘Some people endure more loss than anyone should ever have to carry. I really hope he’s wrapped in support right now – grief like that isn’t something you face alone. Sending him strength and peace’,
‘He is a wonderful man. I met him and his wife Nancy at Notre Dame at The Morris Inn with Regis and Joy Philbin on a football weekend..my daughter was a student at ND as was his son. I feel so bad for him and his family’,
As Martin’s family tragedies resurfaced on social media following the death of his daughter Katherine, fans shared their condolences on X
‘You don’t wish this on your worst enemy. This is sad and Martin is such a well loved well known legend. Its just tragic’.
Daily Mail obtained the 911 call made in connection with the tragic death of Katherine.
In the call, a dispatcher from the Los Angeles Fire Department was heard telling first responders that the nature of Katherine’s wound was ‘self-inflicted’.
The dispatcher said that the person who reported the incident had been ‘with the patient and unable to enter the bedroom’ of the Hollywood, California home.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed to the Daily Mail that crews responded to a call at the address at approximately 6:41 p.m., but declined to identify the individual involved due to privacy concerns.
Katherine was last seen out publicly with her dad while celebrating her 40th birthday, attended by Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Catherine O’Hara, Bo Welch and Joni Mitchell, at the Grand Master Recorders in Hollywood in 2023.
