911 Call Released in Katherine Shorts Tragic Death

'What you don't know when you start is how open you're going to be: what you're going to tell, what you're not going to tell, what you feel comfortable telling,' he told CBC News.

He added that writing the memoir wasn't necessarily the 'cathartic' experience people may assume it might be.

Six years after David's sudden death, Martin also lost his mother Olive, who had been battling cancer for several years. He was 17 years old at the time.

Two years later, his father died following complications from a stroke.

Despite being orphaned and having lost a sibling before he reached 20 years old, Short has long insisted the tragedy he endured in his younger years shaped him as he learnt to live with his grief.

'At 20, I knew things about life and death and tragedy and loss that none of my friends knew about. I don't know why this didn't screw me up,' he told the Hollywood Reporter last month.

'The only thing I can think of is that these kind of life stresses either empower you or defeat you.'

He added the losses had helped him develop 'muscles' to deal with more challenging things later in life.

'I do think, in a weird way, it did make me braver as a performer, braver onstage' and explained he had fewer inhibitions when performing as a young and rising star because he didn't care what others thought of him,' he said.

And his outlook appears to have paid off. 

During his career, Short has triumphed on stage and screen; and most recently has teamed up with his comedy partner Steve Martin to dazzle audiences with Only Murders in the Building; one of the biggest hits on the Disney Plus streaming platform.

In 1972, Short met Dolman, a fellow actress, and the pair were married by 1980.

Five years after the couple tied the knot, Nancy retired from showbusiness to become a stay-at-home mother.