the basics
Birthdate: March 26, 1950
Birthplace: Hamilton, Canada
Occupations: Actor, Writer, Producer
Quote: "What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows...One of my great influences was Don Knotts as Barney Fife." -US, April 1997
Wife: Nancy Short
Daughter: Katherine Short:1983
Son: Oliver Short:1986
Son: Henry Short:born 1990
biography
The man who gave the world Ed Grimley and Jackie Rogers, Jr., has yet to achieve in his bigscreen work the prominence he enjoyed as one of TV's brightest lights. The tightly wound comedic performer, whose expressive face and body enable him to change himself, chameleonlike, into any one of a dozen characters, is a native-born Canadian who initially wowed audiences as one of the "SCTV" comedy troupe. Short's self-created original characters, spot-on impersonations of real-life personalities (from Jerry Lewis to Katharine Hepburn), improvisational skills, and flair for physical comedy won him a berth on "Saturday Night Live" (1984-85 season) before director John Landis paired him with Steve Martin and Chevy Chase in the cowboy-hero spoof ¡Three Amigos! (1986). (He'd already debuted on-screen in 1979's Lost and Found Short was a nebbishy, reluctant hero in Innerspace (1987), then toplined his first romantic comedy, Cross My Heart (also 1987). The farcical Three Fugitives (1989) was a misfire, as was the pratfall-laden Pure Luck (1991, in which he played the world's unluckiest man), and Captain Ron (1992), in which he played it straight and Kurt Russell went for the laughs! Short's supporting roles, however, have been hilarious, indicating that this may be his ideal movie niche. He was uproarious as a wigged-out Hollywood agent in The Big Picture (1989) and as a flamboyant wedding planner with an impenetrable accent in Father of the Bride (1991). He provided a voice for We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993) and played a ten-yearold boy in Clifford (1994). His Ultimate Nerd character from TV skits was also featured in the animated TV series "The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley" (1988-89).
taken from IMDB.com
