Martin Mull Dead: Actor’s co-stars and colleagues lead tributes

LOS ANGELES — Martin Mull, whose esoteric comedy and rollicking acting made him a fashion sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on such shows as “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died at age 80, his daughter said on Tuesday. Friday.

Mull is survived by his daughter and musician Wendy Haas, his wife since 1982.

Mull’s daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness”.

Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, achieved national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera, “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the lead role on its spinoff, “Fernwood Tonight.”

“He was known for excelling in every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” said Maggie Mull in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never funny. My father will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, his friends and co-workers, fellow artists, comedians and musicians, and – the sign of a truly exceptional person – many, many dogs.”

Known for his blond hair and neatly trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut, and studied art in Rhode Island and Rome.

His first foray into show business was as a songwriter, writing the 1970 semi-hit “A Girl Named Johnny Cash” for singer Jane Morgan.

He combined music and comedy in one act that took to Hollywood’s trendy clubs in the 1970s.

“In 1976, I was a guitarist and comedian, appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear came in and heard me,” Mull told the Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater in ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman . Four months later, my own program was separated.”

His time on the Strip was commemorated in the 1973 country rock classic, “Lonesome LA Cowboy,” where the Riders of the Purple Sage give him a shoutout along with musical luminaries Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge.

“I know Kris, Rita and Marty Mull are at the Troubadour,” the song goes.

On “Fernwood Tonight” (sometimes called “Fernwood 2 Night”), he played Barth Gimble, host of a local talk show in a Midwestern town and twin to his character “Mary Hartman.” Fred Willard, a frequent collaborator with very similar comedic sensibilities, played his sidekick. It was later recast as “America 2 Night” and set in Southern California.

He would become a true talk show host as Johnny Carson’s replacement on “The Tonight Show.”

Mull has often played somewhat despicable, somewhat slimy, and often sycophantic characters, as he did as Teri Garr’s boss and Michael Keaton’s nemesis in “Mr. Mother.” He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 film adaptation of the board game “Clue,” which, like many things Mull appeared in, became a cult classic.

The 1980s also brought what many considered his best work, “A History of White People in America,” a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the show and starred as a “60 Minutes”-style investigative reporter, investigating all things petty and mundane. Willard was again a co-star.

He wrote and starred in 1988’s Rented Lips alongside Robert Downey Jr., whose father, Robert Sr., directed.

In the 1990s, he was best known for his recurring role on several seasons of “Roseanne,” in which he played a warmer, less dismissive boss to the title character, an openly gay man whose partner was played by Willard, who died in 2020.

Mull would later play private detective Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” a cult classic character on a cult classic show, and would be nominated for an Emmy, his first, in 2016 for a cameo role on “Veep.”

“I’m really proud of what I did on ‘Veep,’ but I’d like to think it’s probably more collective, at my age it’s more collective,” Mull told the AP after his nomination. “It could go back to ‘Fernwood’.”

Mull is also fondly remembered for his role as Director Willard Kraft on the sitcom Sabrina, the Teenage Witch which debuted in 1996.

Tributes to Martin Mull

His co-star Jennifer Tilly said in an X post on Friday that Mull was “such a witty, charismatic and kind person.”