Actor Martin Mull dead at 80

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and appearing made him a hip sensation within the Seventies and later a beloved visitor star on sitcoms together with “Roseanne” and “Arrested Growth,” has died, his daughter mentioned Friday.

Mull’s daughter, TV author and comedian artist Maggie Mull, mentioned her father died at dwelling on Thursday after “a valiant combat in opposition to a protracted sickness.”

Mull, who was additionally a guitarist and painter, got here to nationwide fame with a recurring position on the Norman Lear-created satirical cleaning soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring position in its spinoff, “Fernwood Tonight.”

“He was recognized for excelling at each inventive self-discipline possible and in addition for doing Crimson Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull mentioned in an Instagram submit. “He would discover that joke humorous. He was by no means not humorous. My dad can be deeply missed by his spouse and daughter, by his buddies and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and—the signal of a really distinctive individual—by many, many canines.”

Recognized for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut and studied artwork in Rhode Island and Rome.

His first foray into present enterprise was as a songwriter, penning the 1970 semi-hit “A Woman Named Johnny Money” for singer Jane Morgan.

He would mix music and comedy in an act that he delivered to hip Hollywood golf equipment within the Seventies.

“In 1976 I used to be a guitar participant and sit-down comedian showing on the Roxy on the Sundown Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,” Mull informed The Related Press in 1980. “He forged me because the spouse beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ 4 months later I used to be spun off alone present.”

His time on the Strip was memorialized within the 1973 nation rock traditional “Lonesome L.A. Cowboy” the place the Riders of the Purple Sage give him a shoutout together with music luminaries Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge.

“I do know Kris and Rita and Marty Mull are hangin’ on the Troubadour,” the tune says.

On “Fernwood Tonight” (generally styled as “Fernwood 2 Evening”), he performed Barth Gimble, the host of a neighborhood speak present in a midwestern city and twin to his “Mary Hartman” character. Fred Willard, a frequent collaborator with very comparable comedian sensibilities, performed his sidekick. It was later revamped as “America 2 Evening” and set in Southern California.

He would get to be an actual speak present host as an alternative choice to Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Present.”

Mull usually performed barely sleazy, considerably slimy and sometimes smarmy characters as he did as Teri Garr’s boss and Michael Keaton’s foe in 1983’s “Mr. Mother.” He performed Colonel Mustard within the 1985 film adaptation of the board sport “Clue,” which, like many issues Mull appeared in, has develop into a cult traditional.

The Nineteen Eighties additionally introduced what many thought was his finest work, “A Historical past of White Individuals in America,” a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the present and starred as a “60 Minutes” type investigative reporter investigating all issues milquetoast and mundane. Willard was once more a co-star.

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

His co-star Jennifer Tilly mentioned in an X submit Friday that Mull was “such a witty charismatic and type individual.”

Within the Nineties he was finest recognized for his recurring position on a number of seasons on “Roseanne,” during which he performed a hotter, much less sleazy boss to the title character, an overtly homosexual man whose companion was performed by Willard, who died in 2020.

Mull would later play personal eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Growth,” a cult-classic character on a cult-classic present, and could be nominated for an Emmy, his first, in 2016 for a visitor run on “Veep.”

“What I did on ‘Veep’ I’m very pleased with, however I’d prefer to assume it’s in all probability extra collective, at my age it’s extra collective,” Mull informed the AP after his nomination. “It’d go all the way in which again to ‘Fernwood.’”

Different comedians and actors have been usually his largest followers.

“Martin was the best,” “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig mentioned on X. “So humorous, so proficient, such a pleasant man. Was fortunate sufficient to behave with him on The Jackie Thomas Present and treasured each second being with a legend. Fernwood Tonight was so influential in my life.”

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