Katherine Short, daughter of Martin Short, reportedly died by suicide at 42. She passed away as a result of self-inflicted gunshot injury, according to a TMZ Report citing law enforcement sources.
“It is with profound grief that we confirm the passing of Katherine Hartley Short. 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,” the report quoted a representative as saying.
Who was Katherine Short?
Katherine Short, one of the three children adopted by Only Murders in the Building star Martin Short and his late wife, actress Nancy Dolma, was born on December 3, 1983 and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and gender and sexuality studies from NYU in 2006, followed by a master’s degree in social work from USC in 2010. She later worked at UCLA’s Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital and with the dual-diagnosis outpatient program Camden Center, her website shown.
She was also reported to have supported the charity Bring Change 2 Mind, an organization focused on empowering young people to create supportive, empathetic school communities where mental health can be discussed openly and without stigma.
Meanwhile, Martin Short is on a two-person comedy and music tour with Steve Martin, and their performance planned for Friday at the Miller High Life Theater in Milwaukee has been rescheduled. Dolman passed away in August 2010 following her struggle with ovarian cancer, after which Short told The Guardian, “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.”
Short, who hails from Hamilton, lost both of his parents by the age of 20 and experienced additional personal losses later in life. Although he faced significant grief at a young age, Short has said in recent years that these hardships did not leave him emotionally damaged; instead, he believes they helped build his resilience and strength.
Born in March 1950 in the Canadian province of Ontario, he was the youngest of five children of Irish and English immigrants Olive Grace and Charles Patrick Short.
In an interview with The GuardianShort described growing up with four older siblings and said being the youngest was “the greatest position in the world”, noting that he received plenty of attention and joking that it left little room for low self-esteem.
He had three brothers — David, Michael, and Brian, and a sister, Nora. Tragedy struck early when his oldest brother, David, died in a car accident in 1962 in Montreal, when Short was just 12 years old.
When his memoir was released in 2014, Martin Short reflected on the experience of writing about his brother’s death.
“What you don’t know when you start is how open you’re going to be: what you’re going to tell, what you’re not going to tell, what you feel comfortable telling,” he told. CBC News.
He also noted that working on the memoir was not necessarily the “cathartic” process that some people might expect. Six years after David’s sudden death, Short suffered another loss when his mother, Olive, died following a long battle with cancer. He was 17 at the time.
