In his new memoir, I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend, Martin Short writes about the string of tragedies he’s endured over the years: His brother died in a car accident, he was orphaned by the time he was 20 and he lost his wife, ex-girlfriend Gilda Radner and close friend and director Nora Ephron all to cancer.

He also developed his comedy chops in his large, rambunctious Irish Roman Catholic family. He had to deal with a succession of tragedies, starting at the age of 12, when his eldest brother died in a car crash. Five years later he lost his mother to cancer, and, when Short was 20, his father died of a stroke.

When Short was 12, his eldest brother David died in a car accident. Then when he was 17, his mother died of cancer, and two years later, his father died of complications from a stroke. Short said writing about painful memories wasn't necessarily "cathartic."