Martin Short has spoken publicly for the first time about the death of his daughter, Katherine Short, describing it as “a nightmare for the family”. Katherine, 42, died by suicide in February at her home in the Hollywood Hills, according to the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s office.
In an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, the 76-year-old comedian and actor compared his daughter’s death to that of his wife, Nancy Dolman, who died of ovarian cancer in 2010. “The understanding [is] that mental health and cancer, like my wife’s, are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases they are terminal,” Short said. “And my daughter fought for a long time with extreme mental health, borderline personality disorder, other things, and did the best she could, until she couldn’t.”
Short recalled his wife’s last words—“Martin, let me go”—and said Katherine’s message was similar: “Dad, let me go.” He expressed a “deep desire” to bring mental health “out of the shadows” so people would not be “ashamed” of discussing it. “Not hiding from the word suicide, but accepting that this can be the last stage of an illness,” he added.
Short also noted losing several close friends and family in the past year, including his sister-in-law, his daughter, and friends Diane Keaton, Rob and Michele Reiner, and Catherine O’Hara. “It’s staggering,” he said. “You just have to breathe in, breathe out.”
Katherine, the eldest of three children adopted by Short and Dolman, largely stayed out of the spotlight. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and gender sexuality studies from New York University in 2006 and a master’s in social work from the University of Southern California in 2010, working as a licensed clinical social worker.
Short spoke ahead of the release of his Netflix documentary Marty, Life Is Short, premiering 12 May, which touches on his early losses—his older brother David died in a car accident when Short was 12, and both parents died when he was a teenager. He said these experiences gave him “this muscle of survival and handling grief” and the bravery to perform: “I think if you’ve gone through that, an audience not liking you is really not that important any more.”
