Martin Short’s daughter dies by suicide aged 42 in latest tragedy to rock beloved Hollywood star

Martin Short’s daughter Katherine died by suicide at the age of 42.

On Tuesday, representatives for the 75-year-old comedy legend confirmed the devastating news in a statement to the Daily Mail.

“It is with deep sadness that we confirm the death of Katherine Hartley Short,” the statement said. ‘The Short family is devastated by this loss and requests privacy at this time. Katherine was loved by all and will be remembered for the light and joy she brought to the world.’

According to authorities, the Los Angeles Police Department responded to Katherine’s Hollywood Hills home shortly after 6 p.m. on Monday.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed to the Daily Mail that crews responded to a call at the address around 6:41 p.m., but declined to identify the person involved due to privacy concerns.

TMZ He reported that Katherine died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

According to dispatch calls reviewed by the Daily Mail, Katherine was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in her home.

Katherine was last seen publicly with her father in 2023 when he celebrated his 40th birthday at Grand Master Recorders, where he was joined by Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Catherine O’Hara, Bo Welch, Joni Mitchell.

Katherine was a licensed clinical social worker with a master’s degree from the University of Southern California.

Short adopted Katherine and her siblings, Oliver and Henry, with his late wife, Nancy Dolman, who died in 2010 after a battle with ovarian cancer.

The couple had been married for 30 years at the time of his death.

Following Dolman’s death, Short’s long-time comedy partner Steve Martin paid tribute to him with a musical elegy called The Great Remember (For Nancy), which appeared on one of Dolman’s albums.

Nancy, his wife of 30 years at the time, passed away after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Steve Martin, Short’s comedy partner at the time, dedicated a musical elegy called The Great Remember (For Nancy) to one of Nancy’s albums.

Speaking about Nancy in 2019, Short described his marriage to the actress as a ‘triumph’. He admitted that he still ‘talks’ to his late wife and still feels her presence around him.

On Tuesday, representatives for the 75-year-old comedy legend confirmed the devastating news in a statement to the Daily Mail; Katherine was photographed with Short and her son Oliver in 2006.

In an interview with AARP magazine, he said: ‘With real tragedy, you become a little braver. From yin to yang: the positive part of the dark side of life.’

He also previously told the CBC that his attitude towards the pain was: ‘We move on.’

In his memoir published in 2014, he described Nancy’s death as ‘the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced’.

Short also benefited from her own experiences while supporting her children who were experiencing the pain of losing their mother.

The night before Nancy died, speaking to her youngest son Henry, she told him: ‘This will make you stronger. This will make you more determined.’

While Short and his children continue to grieve over Nancy 14 years later, the actor previously quoted George Eliot, whom he holds dear, while thinking about her.

“Our dead are never dead to us until we forget them,” he told the Hollywood Reporter, adding: “We were together for 36 years.” ‘I didn’t want to forget Nancy.’

Katherine was last photographed publicly celebrating her 40th birthday with her father, Martin Short, at Grand Master Recorders in 2023.

A sneak peek from her daughter’s party attended by Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Catherine O’Hara, Bo Welch, Joni Mitchell and Julianne Phillips in 2023

Originally from Hamilton, Canada, Short was orphaned at the age of 20 and suffered loss throughout her adulthood.

Despite suffering more as a teenager than most people experience in their lifetimes, Short recently insisted he wasn’t ‘devastated’ by the tragedy that plagued his earlier years; instead arguing that it makes him stronger.

Short was born in March 1950 in Ontario, Canada, as the youngest of five children of Irish and British immigrants Olive Grace and Charles Patrick Short.

He talked about his childhood in a conversation with his four older siblings GuardShort said being the youngest was ‘the greatest position in the world’ because people fawned over him and joked that it was impossible for him to have low self-esteem growing up.

He had three brothers, David, Michael and Brian, and a sister, Nora. But in 1962, when Short was just 12 years old, oldest brother David died in a car crash in Montreal.

Short and his late wife, Nancy Dolman, photographed with their children Katherine and Oliver in 1989

In a speech when her memoir was published in 2014, she discussed writing about her brother’s death.

‘What you don’t know when you start is how open you will be: what you will say, what you won’t say, what you feel comfortable saying,’ he said CBC News.

She added that writing a memoir isn’t necessarily the ’emotional’ experience people might assume.

Six years after David’s sudden death, Martin also lost his mother Olive, who had been battling cancer for several years. He was 17 years old at the time.

When Short was just 12 years old, his brother David passed away after being involved in a car accident. Short, second from left, pictured with siblings David, Michael, Brian and Nora

Short’s parents (pictured) Olive Grace and Charles Patrick Short were Anglo-Irish immigrants who settled in Ontario, Canada.

Two years later, his father died of complications from a stroke.

Despite being orphaned and losing his brother before he was 20, Short insisted that the tragedy he experienced in his youth shaped him as he learned to live with its pain.

‘When I was 20, I knew things about life, death, tragedy and loss that none of my friends knew. ‘I don’t know why it doesn’t devastate me,’ he told the Hollywood Reporter last month.

‘The only thing I can think of is that these kinds of life stresses either strengthen you or defeat you.’

He added that the losses helped him develop ‘muscles’ to deal with tougher things later in life.

Short met fellow actress Nancy Dolman in 1972, and the two married five years later.

After the couple met, Dolman gave up being a stay-at-home mother to her three adopted children.

‘I think in a weird way it’s made me bolder as an artist, braver on stage,’ she said, and explained that she had less inhibitions when performing as a young, rising star because she didn’t care what others thought of her.

And his perspective seems to have worked.

Throughout his career, Short has triumphed on stage and screen; and most recently dazzled audiences with comedy partner Steve Martin in Only Murders in the Building; It’s one of the biggest hits on the Disney Plus streaming platform.

Short met fellow actress Dolman in 1972, and the two married in 1980.

Five years after the couple married, Nancy retired from show business and became a stay-at-home mother.