How Martin Short overcame years of family tragedy

Martin Short has experienced a tremendous amount of tragedy in his life.

On Monday, authorities discovered his daughter, Katherine Hartley Short, dead inside her Hollywood Hills, Calif., home.

His rep confirmed the social worker’s death in a statement on Tuesday.

The death marks only the latest in a string of losses that Martin has survived which include his former wife, Nancy Dolan, his brother, David, and his parents, Olive and Charles.

Over the years, Martin has opened up about his brushes with grief and loss.

“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 in August 2024. “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,” the actor continued. “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.”

Scroll along to learn more about the actor’s past.

His daughter Katherine Short’s apparent suicide

Martin’s daughter, Katherine, was reported dead by a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Tuesday. She was 42 years old.

The “Only Murders in the Building” star’s rep confirmed his daughter’s passing “with profound grief” in a statement to Page Six.

“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.”

Katherine, who worked as a social worker, was found dead by police inside her Hollywood Hills, Calif., home on Monday around 6 p.m.

She was the eldest of Martin’s three children. He’s also dad to sons Oliver Patrick and Henry Hayter — all of whom he welcomed with his late wife, Nancy Dolan, via adoption. The pair were married for 36 years.

Short has not yet spoken out on his daughter’s passing.

His wife, Nancy Dolman, died of ovarian cancer

Martin’s wife, Nancy, died in August 2010 following a years-long battle with ovarian cancer. She was 58 years old.

In 2012, the actor reflected on the profound loss for him and his children, remembering Nancy as “the right person” for him.

“We were together for 36 years, but I would have been divorced five times if I hadn’t found the right person,” Martin told The Guardian.

“I wouldn’t have faked it and played a game just because I didn’t want to be divorced. It’s been a tough two years for my children. This is the thing of life that we live in denial about, that it will ever happen to us or our loved ones, and when it does you gain a little and you suffer a little. There’s no big surprise.”

When asked how he dealt with her passing, the former “SNL” star shared how Nancy confronted her illness in an interview with Larry King released later that year.

“I mean, how does anyone deal with it? She was brave. She, at times, denial fueled her. At times, realism fueled her too.”

As for his kids, he recalled each of them going “in different phases.”

“One deals with it more aggressively. Someone else maybe doesn’t talk about it. But, it doesn’t mean that they’re not all grieving.”

In 2014, while promoting his book, “I Must Say: My Life As a Humble Comedy Legend,” on the The Meredith Vieira Show, he revealed that he honored his late wife’s final wishes by sending her off with an intimate party.

“So I just followed her wishes. We went up, we had a party with about 30 close friends and family. She was cremated. The kids and I went into a boat, we sprinkled the ashes into the water, and we jumped into the ashes,” he shared at the time.

His brother, David, died in a car accident

When Martin was 12, he lost his brother, David, in a car accident. The comedian is the youngest of his five siblings.

In his 2012 Guardian interview, Martin recalled being surrounded by “tremendous humor in the house growing up. A lot of laughing.”

The tragedy he experienced at a young age went on to give him perspective when it came to his own brand of comedy and that of those he considered to be his comedian friends.

“I think the reason all that didn’t throw me sideways was because I had such a solid foundation. Those kinds of situations are horrible but I think that you are either empowered by them or you become a victim of them.”

“I remember speaking to my friend the satirist Stephen Colbert a couple of days after a Whitehouse Correspondents’ Dinner where he’d pushed it really, really far with his material in front of George W Bush, who was not finding it funny at all,” he recalled for the outlet.

“I said, ‘Weren’t you scared?’ and he said, ‘When I was 12, my father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash together. That day I was scared.’ And when he told me that story I thought, ‘I know from what you speak.’”

His parents died when he was a teenager

Martin’s mother, Olive Hayter, died from cancer when the actor was just 17 years old. His dad, Charles Patrick Short, died from a stroke just two years later.

In 2013, the “Father of the Bride” star reflected on his experience with loss at a young age in an interview with CNN.

“I think that you become empowered in a weird way by loss — at any age — but certainly when you’re young,” he said at the time.

“You can either go into a direction of say being, ‘I am going to be a victim from this. I’m going to be a drunk. I’m going to do drugs. But, you don’t know what I’ve been through.’ Or you become more resilient,” he said.

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.