Martin Short. Photo courtesy of the Atlantic City Weekly.

Actor and comedian Martin Short wanted to be a social worker before he entered the entertainment industry, this Atlantic City Weekly article said.

In fact Short, who is Canadian, had graduated from McMaster University in Ontario and decided to take off a year to try comedy and acting.

“I thought that made sense, because you don’t want to look in the mirror at 50 and say ‘maybe I should have tried acting,’” Short, 63, said.

Classmate and friend, comic Eugene Levy, invited him to Toronto where Short landed a spot on SCTV. He then went on to work on the iconic comedy series Saturday Night Live and enjoy a long and successful acting and voice-over career.

Some of his best remembered parts are the character Ed Grimley from SCTV and Ned Nederlander in the film The Three Amigos with co-stars Chevy Chase and Steve Martin.