Catherine O’Hara offered a typically modest reaction when Martin Short confessed he was “madly in love” with her in Netflix’s new documentary Marty, Life is Short.
The film, which lands on Netflix today (May 12), features appearances from Steve Martin, Eugene Levy, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, among others, as they look back on Short’s life and career and share stories about working alongside him.
Now 76, Short has collaborated with O’Hara for decades. Both performers were part of the cast of sketch comedy series SCTV, where their on-screen chemistry and off-screen friendship first became widely known.
In the documentary, viewers see a collection of home-video-style moments spanning years, showing the two spending time together, laughing, and reflecting warmly on their bond.
O’Hara also sits down with Short in more recent footage to revisit their shared history and the closeness that grew from working side by side.
“Am I madly in love with Catherine? Yes,” Short says in the film, prompting O’Hara to laugh as she sits next to him.
Short, who was married to Nancy Dolman for 30 years before she died, quickly frames the comment as something many people around them could relate to.
“Every guy was,” he adds, while O’Hara downplays it with a simple: “No.”
“It’s true,” Short replies, before O’Hara responds: “I love Marty.”
O’Hara goes on to describe how comedy itself can be powerfully attractive, saying: “When someone makes you laugh, that’s the sexiest thing in the world.”
Looking back at their time on SCTV, she recalls how constant laughter created a unique atmosphere, where the closeness among cast members could feel like it blurred into romance and made people wonder if they should “try dating.”
“Didn’t everybody love each other?” she asks Short, who agrees.
Beyond their early work, the pair stayed close throughout Short’s marriage to Dolman. O’Hara even shares that she once pointed to Marty and Nancy’s relationship as an example during a difficult period in her own marriage.
She explains: “My husband and I went through a little rough patch, and we went to therapy. And one of the questions she was, ‘Do you have friends, do you know a couple whose relationship you would love to have or you’d love to emulate?’
“We said, ‘Oh, we have these friends Marty and Nancy.’ And she said, ‘I can’t tell you how many people have named them when I’ve asked this question.'”
Dolman died of ovarian cancer in 2010.
According to the piece being rewritten, after completing her interviews for Marty, Life is Short, O’Hara died on January 30, 2026, following a pulmonary embolism.
Short later paid tribute to O’Hara during a comedy show in Texas, telling the audience: “She has been the greatest, most brilliant, kindest, sweetest angel that any of us worked with.”
Marty, Life is Short is available to stream on Netflix now.