Martin Short Biography

Comedian Martin Short became a star in the 1980s on the television comedy shows SCTV and Saturday Night Live, known for his broad, physical comedy and dead-on impersonations (including one of Katharine Hepburn). His early movie roles included Three Amigos (1986, with fellow SNL comedians Chevy Chase and Steve Martin), Innerspace (1987) and Clifford (1994), but Short’s great television work never seemed to translate onto the big screen. During the ’90s he returned to television in short-lived series and guest appearances, and appeared in occasional comedy roles in several movies, including Father of the Bride (1991), Tim Burton‘s Mars Attacks (1996) and 1999’s Mumford (1999). On his 1999 talk show he occasionally appeared in heavy makeup as Jiminy Glick, a Hollywood reporter who is at turns obsequious and dismissive during celebrity interviews. Short then developed the character for Comedy Central’s series Primetime Glick, which debuted in 2001 and ran until 2003. Since then he’s appeared on the television series Damages in 2010 (for which he won an Emmy nomination), and in 2011 he joined the cast How I Met Your Mother.