Martin Short’s biggest regrets about his career revealed after his daughter’s death
Martin Short suffers from crushing career jealousy, which once left him unable to face fellow comedian Bill Murray. RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The 76 year old Only murders in the building star is the subject of the new Netflix documentary Marty: Life is shortin which he recalls falling into despair during a difficult period in his career as Murray’s success soared.
Friends close to Short — who is still mourning the devastating losses that defined his life, including the suicide of his daughter Katherine earlier this year — told us that the comic has been thinking deeply about fame, mortality and survival in recent months following Katherine’s death at age 42 in February after a long battle with mental illness.
A source said: “Martin has always been brutally honest behind the scenes about failures and insecurity. The loss of Katherine forced him to re-examine every painful chapter of his life.”
Another added: “He’s had unimaginable heartbreak but comedy and family have always been the things that kept him moving forward.”
In the documentary, Short described reaching what he later called the “breakdown corner” as he prepared to meet Murray for dinner with his late wife, Nancy Dolman, who died of ovarian cancer in 2010.
He said, “Nancy and I were walking there, and I was just overwhelmed, ‘I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it.'”
Short continued, “I’m out of work now. I hadn’t worked in a few months. I had no prospects and I didn’t really know where I was going. And I said, ‘I can’t pretend to be happy for Bill because I don’t know what I’m doing. I have to sit down.'”
The actor – whose credits include Three Amigos, Father of the bride, And Interior space – said the moment became a turning point after he and Dolman saw an improv comedy group called War Babies perform later that night.
He recalled, “We sat there for about ten minutes and didn’t say anything. Finally, Nancy said, “How long are we going to be here?” I said, ‘I don’t know.’
“So we went back to the apartment, and I woke up in a funk. And then we saw War Babies, an improv group. It was so funny. It was fresh. It was inspiring. I felt inspired just witnessing it. It was like the light bulbs went off: ‘Of course, this is what I have to do.’
Short said his decades in Hollywood have taught him that success depends on “talent, luck and endurance.”
He added, “I’d say my career has been 80 percent failure, and I’d say those are pretty good odds.
“Show business is talent, luck and endurance. But you can have talent, you can have tenacity. You can roll with the punches, but if you don’t have the confidence to reach the top and fail, then you can’t do it.”
In a separate interview with CBS News Sunday morningShort spoke publicly for the first time about Katherine’s death, describing the impact on his family as “a nightmare.”
He said: “It has been a nightmare for the family. But the realization is that mental health and cancer, like my wife’s, are both diseases, and in the case of diseases, sometimes terminal.
“And my daughter battled extreme mental health, borderline personality disorder and other things for a long time, doing the best she could until she couldn’t do it anymore.
“So (Nancy’s) last words to me were, ‘Martin, let me go.’ And what she (Katherine) just said (was), ‘Daddy, let me go.'”
Short also revealed that he has suffered a series of losses in recent months, involving close family members and longtime friends, including Diane Keaton, Rob and Michelle Reiner, and Catherine O’Hara.
