Martin Mull participates in 'The Cool Kids' panel during the Fox Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton hotel on August 2, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.
Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
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Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
LOS ANGELES — Martin Mull, whose funny, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms such as “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday.
Mull's daughter, TV writer and cartoonist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home Thursday after “a valiant battle against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national prominence with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” and the lead role in its spinoff, “Fernwood Tonight.”
“He was known for excelling in every creative discipline imaginable, including his role in Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He found that joke funny. He was always funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and colleagues, by fellow artists, comedians and musicians, and — the mark of a truly exceptional person — by many, many dogs.”
Known for his blond hair and well-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 would combine music and comedy in an act that he brought to hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976, I was a guitarist and comedian performing 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, I was spun off to do my own show.”
His time on the Strip was commemorated in the 1973 country rock classic “Lonesome LA Cowboy”, in which the Riders of the Purple Sage gave him a shout-out along with music greats Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge.
“I know Kris, Rita and Marty Mull hang out at the Troubadour,” the song goes.
In “Fernwood Tonight” (sometimes styled as “Fernwood 2 Night”) he played Barth Gimble, the host of a local talk show in a midwestern town and twin brother of his character “Mary Hartman.” Fred Willard, a frequent collaborator with very similar comedic sensibilities, played his sidekick. It was later renamed “America 2 Night” and was set in Southern California.
He would become a real talk show host, replacing Johnny Carson on 'The Tonight Show'.
Mull often played slightly sleazy, somewhat slimy and often slippery characters, as he did as Teri Garr's boss and Michael Keaton's enemy in 1983's “Mr. Mom.” He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 film adaptation of the board game “Clue” , which, like many things Mull appeared in, has become a cult classic.
The 1980s also brought what many consider his best work: “A History of White People in America,” a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the show and played the role of a “60 Minutes” style investigative journalist who investigates all things milquetoast and mundane. Willard was again a co-star.
He wrote and starred in 1988's “Rented Lips,” opposite Robert Downey Jr., whose father, Robert Sr., directed.
His co-star Jennifer Tilly said in an X message on Friday that Mull was “such a witty, charismatic and kind person.”
In the 1990s, he was best known for his recurring role on several seasons of “Roseanne,” in which he played a warmer, less sleazy boss to the title character, an openly gay man whose partner was played by Willard, who died in 2020.
Mull would later star as private investigator Gene Parmesan in “Arrested Development,” a cult classic within a cult classic, and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016, his first, for a guest role on “Veep.”
“What I did on 'Veep' I'm very proud of, 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 all the way back to 'Fernwood.'”
Other comedians and actors were often his biggest fans.
“Martin was the best,” Bridesmaids director Paul Feig said on X. “So funny, so talented, such a nice guy. Was lucky enough to appear with him on The Jackie Thomas Show and cherished every moment he was with a legend. Fernwood Tonight was such an influential part of my life.”
Mull is survived by his daughter and musician Wendy Haas, to whom he has been married since 1982.
