Katherine Hartley Short

Katherine Hartley Short died on Monday, February 23, 2026, at her residence in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. She was 42 years old.

According to NBC4 Investigates, LAPD sources said police arrived at about 7 p.m. after a friend requested a welfare check, having not heard from her in over 24 hours. Officers reportedly found a note on the door; she was found inside the home. The Los Angeles Fire Department said that around 6:41 p.m. personnel responded to a reported shooting at a Hollywood Hills address associated with her and identified a deceased woman.

On February 24, 2026, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's office confirmed that the manner of death was suicide. The examiner's records, reported under her legal name Katherine Hartley, listed the cause as a gunshot wound of the head. TMZ reported that her death certificate described a self-inflicted gunshot wound and that she was cremated. The contents of any note found at the scene have not been made public. Early reports noted the case remained open during investigation.

A representative for Martin Short confirmed the death that day: "It is with profound grief that we confirm the passing of Katherine Hartley Short. The Short family is devastated by this loss and asks for privacy at this time. Katherine was beloved by all and will be remembered for the light and joy she brought into the world."

Short postponed upcoming comedy-tour dates with Steve Martin in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. Entertainment colleagues offered condolences to a family that had already lost Nancy Dolman in 2010. In May 2026, Martin Short told CBS Sunday Morning the death had been a nightmare for the family, that Katherine had fought severe mental illness for a long time, and that he wanted mental health taken out of the shadows. He recalled that Nancy's last words to him had been "Martin, let me go," and said Katherine's message was essentially "Dad, let me go."

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Los Angeles County, the Department of Mental Health Help Line is available at (800) 854-7771. Veterans can call 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Katherine Elizabeth Short was born in 1983 and adopted by Canadian-born comedian and actor Martin Short and Canadian actress Nancy Dolman, who married in 1980 after meeting during a Toronto production of Godspell in the early 1970s. She was the eldest of three children the couple adopted; her younger brothers are Oliver Patrick Short and Henry Hayter Short.

She grew up in a household shaped by her father's entertainment career and her mother's decision to step back from performing to raise the family. The family later lived in the Los Angeles area, including Pacific Palisades. On August 21, 2010, Nancy Dolman died of ovarian cancer at age 58, after 30 years of marriage. Martin Short later told interviewers that the years after her death were especially hard for their children. In his 2014 memoir I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend, dedicated to his children, he wrote about grief and continuing forward after loss.

Katherine was not raised for public life. Classmates and later colleagues knew her as a private, grounded person. She occasionally appeared with her father at premieres and parties (including the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscar party) but did not pursue acting or comedy. Friends and neighbors later described her as outgoing in private settings, proud of her home, and known in her community as Katherine Hartley after she legally changed her surname.

Short earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and gender sexuality studies from New York University in 2006. She then completed a Master of Social Work at the University of Southern California in 2010.

During her MSW program she worked with Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm, in her first year and later trained at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration. West Hollywood Vice Mayor Danny Hang, who adjourned a city council meeting in her memory in March 2026, said the two met while studying at USC and completed their clinical internship together at the VA. He recalled that even as a student she had a rare presence: calm, compassionate, and deeply attuned to the people in front of her.

Her graduate training prepared her for crisis work, psychiatric settings, and work with veterans, low-income families, and foster youth, themes that carried into her later hospital and outpatient roles.

After completing her MSW, Short worked for about four years at UCLA's Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. According to her professional profile, she developed expertise in crisis management, advocacy, connecting clients to resources, individual therapy, group psychotherapy, and supporting family members of people with severe mental illness or substance abuse. Her settings included inpatient, outpatient, and psychiatric consultation teams.

She later joined the Camden Center in West Los Angeles, providing cognitive behavioral therapy in a dual-diagnosis outpatient program. After licensure as a clinical social worker she also worked with Shari Foos, LMFT, under The Narrative Method program at the West LA VA, running group workshops. She then built a private practice in Los Angeles and worked part time at Amae Health, a psychiatry-led outpatient clinic, offering community outreach, family support groups, peer support, and psychotherapy. Amae Health's published specialties have included suicide attempts and ideation among the conditions it treats.

In court papers filed in October 2012 and approved January 25, 2013, she legally changed her name from Katherine Elizabeth Short to Katherine Elizabeth Hartley. She wrote: "My father is a public figure. I am a social worker. I am concerned about potential harassment from future patients resulting from my association with my father." (Some reporting quotes the petition as saying "psychiatric social worker.") Friends and clients often knew her under the Hartley name.

Her since-deleted practice website listed dozens of clinical specialties, including anxiety, depression, adoption-related trauma, personality and psychotic disorders, grief, suicidality, and relationship difficulties, and noted prior work in psychiatric hospitals and outpatient programs supporting veterans, low-income families, and foster youth.

Short lived in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. She kept a low public profile and was not known to have published details of a marriage or children; reputable obituaries and news reports do not document a spouse or children.

On her professional website she wrote about her service dog, Joni (named after Joni Mitchell), who had assisted her with her own struggles with mental illness for several years and sometimes accompanied her in the office. A close friend told TMZ she had previously had a rescue dog named Charlie who was loving and comforting. The same friend described her as a beautiful, empathetic soul who took on the baggage of the world through her clinical work, and said she did not broadcast that she was Martin Short's daughter.

Neighbors told Us Weekly she was private but friendly, often laughing with friends on her front porch, and that they saw no outward indication she was in crisis before her death. Her last widely noted public appearance was in October 2023, when she celebrated her 40th birthday at Grand Master Recorders in Hollywood; she and her father were photographed together around that time.

She is survived by her father, Martin Short, and her brothers, Oliver and Henry. Oliver and his family were living temporarily in Newport Beach after their home was damaged in the Pacific Palisades fires, according to Martin Short's later public comments.

Short's public and professional life centered on reducing stigma around mental illness and meeting people in crisis with clinical skill and empathy. She supported Bring Change 2 Mind (BC2M), the nonprofit founded by actress Glenn Close and her family to end stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness and to help young people build school communities where mental health conversations are welcome. She also volunteered with animal-rescue efforts and served on the board of directors of Karma Rescue, a Santa Monica nonprofit founded by her friend Rande Levine.

On her website she wrote openly that Joni, her service dog, had been assisting with her own struggles with mental illness. After her death, Martin Short said on CBS Sunday Morning that she had fought for a long time with severe mental health challenges, including borderline personality disorder and other conditions, "and did the best she could, until she couldn't." He compared severe mental illness to cancer, saying both are diseases that can sometimes be terminal, and expressed a deep desire to take mental health out of the shadows so people would not be ashamed to talk about it, including not hiding from the word suicide when it is the last stage of an illness.

Her name-change petition reflected a related belief: that her clinical clients deserved a therapist whose identity was not overshadowed by celebrity association, and that she had a right to professional boundaries separate from her father's fame.

Colleagues, friends, and local officials remembered Short for the quiet work of showing up for people in psychiatric crisis, dual diagnosis treatment, private therapy, and community outreach. Vice Mayor Danny Hang told the West Hollywood City Council that she chose a life of service, walking alongside people in their most vulnerable moments and reminding them that they were not alone. He said she believed mental health care is not only treatment but advocacy, compassion, and community.

Through Bring Change 2 Mind and her clinical roles, she contributed to anti-stigma work and direct care for people living with serious mental illness, trauma, and suicidality. Friends said her empathy was both a gift and a burden: she absorbed others' pain while managing her own. Her father's later public comments framed her death within a broader call to treat mental illness with the same seriousness as physical disease and to speak openly about suicide as a possible outcome of illness, not a shameful secret.

On March 2, 2026, the West Hollywood City Council adjourned its regular meeting in her memory. Hang also pointed the public to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and Los Angeles County mental health resources. No public funeral details were announced; the family requested privacy, and reporting on her death certificate indicated she was cremated.

Although Short was not a celebrity in her own right, her death drew extensive coverage from outlets including People, E! News, the Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, ABC News, NBC Los Angeles, USA Today, TMZ, and Entertainment Weekly, largely because of her father's prominence and the medical examiner's confirmation of suicide.

Coverage emphasized her clinical career, her name change, her advocacy, and the family's request for privacy. Martin Short postponed Milwaukee and Minneapolis dates on his tour with Steve Martin; venues cited unforeseen circumstances. He skipped some awards appearances in the immediate aftermath. In May 2026 he spoke at length on CBS Sunday Morning ahead of the Netflix documentary Marty, Life Is Short, which is dedicated in part to Katherine, marking his first extended public comments on her death.

Wikipedia does not have a standalone article on Katherine Hartley Short as of this writing; her death is noted in the Martin Short article. Her professional website was taken offline after she died.