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Martin Short Remembers Gilda Radner as “Hilarious, Alive and Warm” at Netflix Is a Joke Event

His tribute spotlights the Godspell roots of a tight comedy circle alongside the personal losses that shaped his life.

Overview

  • Short, speaking with David Letterman and Paul Shaffer at Netflix Is a Joke on Thursday, May 7, called Radner “exactly as wonderful as you’d hope” and “hilarious and alive and warm.”
  • He said they met and dated during the 1972 Toronto run of Godspell, which also featured future stars Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, and Victor Garber.
  • The same production introduced him to Radner’s understudy, Nancy Dolman, whom he married in 1980 before her death from ovarian cancer in 2010.
  • Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989 at 42, and Short has described their relationship as on-and-off, recalling a day he set a tennis date with Dolman as Radner tried to reconcile.
  • The remembrance lands months after the family said in February 2026 that daughter Katherine had died at 42, giving Short’s comments a fresh note of grief.