The new Netflix documentary “Marty, Life is Short”, is an oustanding look into the life of Martin Short, who is one of the most talented and funny actors and comedians we have ever seen. Despite his talent Short has seen more than his share of tragedy. Short’s brother Gordon died in a car accident when Martin was only 12 years old. Both of Martin’s parents died before he reached 20 years old. In 2010, Martin lost his wife of 30 years Nancy Dolman to Ovarian Cancer, the same diseased that Gilda Radner died of in 1989. A few months ago, Martin lost his adopted daughter Katherine to suicide.

Through all this tragedy and an extremely difficult career in show business, there were years where Short was making movies regularly, but a large percentage of them, were not financially successful. As Martin says in this documentary, you succeed only about 10% of the time, and have to weather years of no work and bad times when nothing seems to work. There is a scene where Short bought a house with his wife, thinking that the two movies he was about to make would pay for it, only to lose one of the movies. The reaction from his wife, was, “we will just move”.

Martin Short’s appearances on the Johnny Carson show were as memorable as his close friend Steve Martin and Robin Williams (see videos below). Short’s timing and delivery was always flawless as were his impressions of many celebrties, including Katherine Hepburn, Betty Davis and even Magician Doug Henning. Like very few who appeared on the Johnny Carson show, Martin was one of the very few who could turn his appearances into a major event.

In 1985, along with Billy Crystal, Martin Short rescued Saturday Night Live that was close to being cancelled, and created one of the best seasons of this show that included some of Shorts most famous characters.

This documentary also shows the many family events at Martin Short’s house, that even included friends, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Steven Martin and even Steven Speilberg. This documentary is very well directed by well known director Lawrence Kasdan and includes many interviews with Martin Short about this life and career.

Marty, Life is Short is receiving perfect 100% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and I agree with this rating giving this documentary, my highest recommendation.