Actress Nancy Dolman, Wife of Martin Short, Dies at Age 58

Actress Nancy Dolman, wife of Tony winner Martin Short, has died after a three-year battle with cancer. The Canadian comedienne passed away on August 21 in the home she and Short shared in California’s Pacific Palisades. Dolman was 58.

Dolman was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1952. After graduating from the University of Western Ontario, the performer notably toured with the Canadian Rock Theatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar in the early 1970s, making stops in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, before recording a cast album. She met Short while working on the 1972 Toronto run of Stephen Schwartz musical Godspell, which also starred Victor Garber, Andrea Martin (who later married and divorced Dolman’s brother, Bob), Eugene Levy and Gilda Radner (Dolman was Radner’s understudy). Dolman and Short married in 1980. In 1985, after stints on TV’s Soap, Second City and Making a Living, Dolman retired from acting to raise her family.

In addition to Short, Dolman is survived by their three children, Katherine (27), Oliver (24) and Henry (20).