Martin Short On His Career And 'Only Murders In The Building -- The Actor's Side

Martin Short has been busy this TV season, but when hasn’t he been in demand?

With recurring roles on Apple TV+’s The Morning Show as Dick Lundy (for which he got one of his 15 Emmy nominations), and in Schmigadoon! as the Leprechaun, Short has also won acclaim, Critics Choice and Golden Globe and SAG nominations, and now Emmy buzz for his role as Oliver Putnam in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, which will begin its second season June 28.

A man of many talents, Short joins me for this week’s episode of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side, though “entertainer” more than “actor” is the word he himself would use to describe his profession. And “entertaining” is something he has been doing for a career that has included stints with SCTV, Saturday Night Live and variety shows; Tony-winning and -nominated Broadway appearances in Little Me, The Goodbye Girl and Fame Becomes Me; and numerous movies including Father of the Bride, Innerspace, The Big Picture, Mumford, Clifford and The Three Amigos, to name just a few. The latter film is the one that brought him together for the first time with Steve Martin, with whom he now also tours in their own stage act, and of course both co-star with Selena Gomez in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.

About 20 years ago I got the honor of working on the short-lived but oh-so-fun talk show The Martin Short Show. Irving Cohen, Nathan Thurm, Jackie Rogers Jr., Ed Grimley, Jiminy Glick, Ned Nederlander, Neil Sussman, Franck Egglehoffer, Tucker Kerwin, Leonard Winstone, Clifford Daniels, Stefano the Sea Lion and Rudy Blatnoyd are just a few of the many faces of Martin Short, who also wrote his 2014 autobiography titled I Must Say. I must say it is always fun to talk to him, and in this case to get the “actor’s side” of things — or should I say the entertainer’s side — in our conversation, which you can access by clicking the link above.

Join me each Wednesday during Emmy season for another edition of The Actor’s Side.