LOS ANGELES (AP) — Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and performing made him a hip sensation within the Nineteen Seventies and later a beloved visitor star on sitcoms together with “Roseanne” and “Arrested Improvement,” has died, his daughter stated Friday. He was 80.
Mull’s daughter, TV author and comedian artist Maggie Mull, stated her father died at house on Thursday after “a valiant combat towards 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 artistic self-discipline conceivable and likewise for doing Pink Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull stated in an Instagram publish. “He would discover that joke humorous. He was by no means not humorous. My dad will likely be deeply missed by his spouse and daughter, by his pals and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and—the signal of a really distinctive particular person—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 dropped at hip Hollywood golf equipment within the Nineteen 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 instructed The Related Press in 1980. “He solid 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 music says.
On “Fernwood Tonight” (generally styled as “Fernwood 2 Night time”), 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 related comedian sensibilities, performed his sidekick. It was later revamped as “America 2 Night time” 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 infrequently 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 recreation “Clue,” which, like many issues Mull appeared in, has turn into a cult traditional.
The Nineteen Eighties additionally introduced what many thought was his greatest 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 stated in an X publish Friday that Mull was “such a witty charismatic and sort particular person.”
Within the Nineties he was greatest recognized for his recurring position on a number of seasons on “Roseanne,” wherein he performed a hotter, much less sleazy boss to the title character, an overtly homosexual man whose associate was performed by Willard, who died in 2020.
Mull would later play non-public eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Improvement,” 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 happy with, however I’d wish to suppose it’s in all probability extra collective, at my age it’s extra collective,” Mull instructed the AP after his nomination. “It’d go all the best way again to ‘Fernwood.’”
Different comedians and actors had been usually his greatest followers.
“Martin was the best,” “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig stated on X. “So humorous, so gifted, 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.
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