Comedian Martin Short, still in the early stages of processing his daughter Katherine’s death in February, revealed some of the “nightmare” his family has endured since she died by suicide at age 42.

It was the latest in a series of losses, starting in childhood. Short, the youngest of five children, was 12 when he lost his oldest brother, David, in a car accident. Both his parents died before he was 20, and in 2010, ovarian cancer took his wife of 30 years, Nancy Dolman.

The “Only Murders in the Building” star noted that cancer and the extreme mental health ailments that cost his daughter her life have one thing in common.

“It’s been a nightmare for the family,” he told “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent Tracy Smith in an interview that aired Sunday. “But the understanding that mental health and cancer, like my wife’s, are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases, they are terminal. And my daughter fought for a long time with extreme mental health, borderline personality disorder, other things, and did the best she could until she couldn’t.”

That made him want to take “mental health out of the shadows, not being ashamed of it, not hiding from the word suicide, but accepting that this can be the last stage of an illness,” he said, noting his work with Bring Change to Mind, an organization started by actor Glenn Close to destigmatize mental illness. “And that’s my approach to this.”

Short dedicated the Lawrence Kasdan documentary of his life, “Marty, Life Is Short,” to both his daughter and the late actor and comedian Catherine O’Hara. The Netflix film, set for release Tuesday, delves into Short’s life losses and his ability to rebound. The title is no accident.

“Last October, I lost Diane Keaton on the same day I lost my sister-in-law, Nancy’s sister, to cancer,” Short said. “And then Rob and Michelle [Reiner] have been my lifelong friends for 40 years. And then Catherine O’Hara, and then my daughter. I mean, it’s been in four months. Staggering. Staggering.”

Short explained the life perspective that enables him to find joy amid all the heartbreak.

“I think we all are in denial about our limited time on this Earth. It’s very difficult to accept it,” Short said. “But the more you accept it, I think it does lift you and make you feel that this is a complicated journey, this life, and the more you accept it with wisdom, the happier you’ll be.”

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