Name	Martin Short
Height	5' 7½"
Naionality	Canadian
Date of Birth	26 March 1950
Place of Birth	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Famous for

"What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows. One of my great influences was Don Knotts as Barney Fife." Martin Short.

Initially interested in pursuing career in social work, Martin Short subsequently turned into acting after he was cast in a production of “Godspell” in 1972. Afterward, he was involved in several television shows and plays, including an intense topical drama, "Fortune and Men's Eyes." With the suggestions of his McMasters classmates Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas, both notable comedians, Martin decided to pursue comedy and joined Levy and Thomas at the Second City improv troupe in 1977. He also joined Toronto's Second City troupe, where he honed his lovably grotesque comic creations and inspired impressions.

In 1979, Martin made his feature acting debut in Melvin Frank's romantic comedy starring George Segal and Glenda Jackson, Lost and Found, and debuted as a TV regular in U.S, on ABC brief-running sitcom "The Associates.” Three years later, he joined the ensemble of "SCTV Comedy Network" during its fifth season as a writer-performer. From 1984 to 1985, he spent working in a superior season of NBC weekly late night comedy-variety show "Saturday Night Live."

The comedian slowly transformed into Hollywood movies and got his first starring role in John Landis' 1986 comedy western film, ¡Three Amigos!, in which he shared the swashbuckling title role with heavyweights Chevy Chase and Steve Martin, playing Ned Nederlander, and followed it up with another starring role, as a hypochondriac who begins to hear voices in his head in the sci-fi comedy Innerspace (1987; with Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), based around a spoof of the 1966 sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage. He also had uncredited cameo as the smarmy agent in The Big Picture (1989; starring Kevin Bacon), as Franck Eggelhoffer, the gonzo European wedding planner, in the remake of Father of the Bride (1991; with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton), and its 1995 installment, Father of the Bride Part II (this time as a decorator). During that time, he also had leading roles, but was frequently missed, in films like Three Fugitives (1989), Pure Luck (1991) and Clifford (1994).

Meanwhile, Martin impressed theatergoers with his accomplished musical comedy work in Neil Simon's "The Goodbye Girl." First produced in Chicago in 1992 and later on the Broadway, "The Goodbye Girl" received a Tony nomination in 1993. The next year, Martin returned to the small screen to star in his own short-lived NBC sitcom, "The Martin Short Show," in which he delivered his excellent creation of comic characters by performing wacky parodies of Hollywood entertainment personalities, including Katharine Hepburn and Jerry Lewis. 1994 also saw Martin was named a Member of the Order of Canada.

Moviegoers could catch Martin in the disappointing theatrical comedy A Simple Wish (1997), playing a bumbling male fairy godmother, and played attorney Lionel Dillard in comedic movie Mumford (1999). On television, after earning an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie after giving appearances as the magical imp Frik in the NBC miniseries "Merlin"(1998), Martin played the zany Mad Hatter in the CBS mini "Alice in Wonderland" (1999). On stage, he played a multitude of characters in the Broadway revival of "Little Me" (1998) musical by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh and he subsequently won the Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical).

During "The Martin Short Show," Martin began created a fictional character called Jiminy Glick, a fat, famous television interviewer who usually knows nothing about his guests and hurls veiled insults at them during his interviews. The character then was granted his own Comedy Central show, Primetime Glick (2001-2003), which was nominated an Emmy in 2003. The character later starred in his own 2005 film, Jiminy Glick in La La Wood.

"I've always liked myself on talk shows--I can objectively look at myself and say, that's me being kind of loose at a party. I buy that." Martin Short.

Meanwhile, Martin went back on stage to portray the nebbish Leo Bloom to Jason Alexander's Max Bialystock in the 2003 Los Angeles production of the hit Broadway musical "The Producers" (derived from the Mel Brooks film of the same name) at the Pantages theater. He also returned to television with a memorable serious dramatic turn on the crime series "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and on the Fox cult favorite sitcom "Arrested Development," as the elderly, paraplegic millionaire Uncle Jack.

In 2006, performed in and co-wrote the autobiographical Broadway musical, "Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me," a twisted take on the trend of soul-baring, one-person shows. It opened at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway on August 17 and has been enjoying a successful preview run since July 26.

“This is satire. I am a satirist. Modern-day society has this obsession with needing to know every ounce of angst about performers' lives, to the point that it becomes more important than whether they can perform." Martin Short (on his Broadway show “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me” (2006)).

As for film, he could be seen playing the mischievous Jack Frost, opposite Scott Calvin’s Santa Claus, in the newly-released The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, a 2006 sequel to The Santa Clause and The Santa Clause 2. He is currently filming his upcoming film, an adventure family drama movie directed by Mark Waters, The Spiderwick Chronicles, alongside David Strathairn and Mary-Louise Parker.

"I could retire in a second. I don't know. I want my exit to be as cool as my entrance. I kind of feel that when you do what I do, you make a deal with the audience. Do they really need to see you wheeled out on a stretcher? But I do know this ? I love performing." Martin Short.