Martin Short has been famous for so long that it's easy to forget he's been quietly stacking a fortune while everyone else was busy roasting him.
The 74-year-old comedy legend has never been a tabloid fixture, which makes his résumé—and his reported bank account—genuinely surprising to anyone who only knows him as the guy from *Only Murders in the Building*.
Short's career spans five decades, and it's the kind of slow-burn résumé that financial analysts love.
He got his start on *SCTV* in the early '80s, then became a *Saturday Night Live* cast member in 1984, where he played Ed Grimley and cemented himself as one of the show's most underrated utility players.
From there came *Three Amigos*, *Father of the Bride*, and a string of voice roles that paid extremely well.
The real money, though, came from reinvention.
Short never had one giant payday—he had dozens of medium ones, which is arguably a smarter strategy.
He's toured with Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, headlined Broadway in *Little Me* and *The Goodbye Girl*, and voiced characters in everything from *The Cat in the Hat* to *The Addams Family*.
Streaming-era success with *Only Murders* reportedly pushed his per-episode pay into seven figures alongside Martin and Selena Gomez.
Estimates of his net worth have floated around $20 million for years, though some outlets have pegged it higher.
Short has never confirmed a number, and he's famously private about money—he grew up in a working-class family in Hamilton, Ontario, and has talked about losing his father young.
That background shows in how he talks about work: he takes the gig, he shows up, he doesn't complain.
What makes the recent attention interesting is how little Short seems to care about the money conversation.
During awards season, he and Martin became the internet's favorite platonic love story, and their red carpet banter consistently outperformed actual winners in social engagement.
When Short won his first Emmy in 2024 after decades of nominations, the clip of him hugging Martin went viral for a reason—people love a guy who waited his turn.
Short isn't a traditional endorsements guy, but his resurgence has made him suddenly valuable to a certain kind of advertiser—the one chasing nostalgia with a wink.
He's appeared in Super Bowl-adjacent spots, lent his voice to animated campaigns, and become a regular in the "unexpectedly cool older celebrity" category that marketers can't manufacture.
None of this is a rags-to-riches story, and Short would probably be the first to say so.
He's a working actor who happened to be very good at a very specific thing for a very long time, and the math eventually caught up with the talent.
In an era of overnight influencers and crypto-funded fame, that's almost a novelty.
The takeaway is simple: Martin Short didn't get rich quick, and he didn't get famous by accident.
Final Thoughts
He got both the old-fashioned way—by being impossible to replace.