Clue, Arrested Building Actor Used to Be 80

Martin Mull, the comedy musician and actor who got his start on the 1970s TV series “Fernwood 2 Night” and appeared as Colonel Mustard in “Clue” and “Arrested Development” and “Roseanne,” died Thursday in Los Angeles. Died in. He was 80 years old.

His daughter Maggie announced his death on Instagram, writing, “I am sad to announce that my father passed away at home on June 27 after bravely fighting a long illness. He was known for excelling in every creative discipline and also for the Red Roof Inn commercials. He will find that joke funny. He was never funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, his friends and colleagues, fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and – a sign of a truly extraordinary man – many, many dogs. I loved her very much.”

Mull was nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for his guest role as political aide Bob Bradley on “Veep”. Most recently he made guest appearances on “The Afterparty,” “Not Dead Yet” and “Grace and Frankie.”

In 2015, he played George Perry, the father of Gillian Jacobs’ Britta Perry, on the NBC comedy “Community” and guest starred on the CBS comedy “Life in Pieces.”

Mul had a regular ceremony As Russell in “Two and a Half Men” from 2008–2013, a pharmacist who illegally uses and sells drugs and attended Charlie’s funeral in the season 9 premiere episode. The actor also starred in “Arrested Development” as Gene Parmesan, an incompetent private investigator who has a habit of wearing ridiculous disguises.

Mule was a series based on Seth MacFarlane’s single-season Fox comedy “Dads”, starring Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi, playing Ribisi’s character’s father as a video-game company owner in 2013–14.

In 2008, he guest-starred on “Law & Order: SVU” as Dr. Gideon Hutton, whose denial of having AIDS resulted in his conviction for willful negligence leading to the deaths of several people. .

Mull’s film and television career actually began with his stint as talk show host Barth Gimble in the wickedly satirical, Norman Lear-produced TV series “Fernwood 2 Night”, later renamed “America Tonight”. 1977 and 1978. The mock communications show co-starred Fred Willard as Gimble’s dim-witted partner Jerry Hubbard. Those shows were spin-offs from Lear’s original cleaning soap opera sendup “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”.

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Willard, who died in 2020 at age 86, and Mull teamed up again in the 1985 HBO mockumentary “The History of White People in America.” Mull had played Roseanne’s gay boss Leon Karp on her eponymous ABC sitcom from 1991–97, and he was reunited with Willard for a 1995 episode of the show, which featured the two in an undoubtedly romantic relationship. About TV’s first gay wedding.

Ellen DeGeneres was a series regular on the sitcom “The Ellen Show” (not to be confused with the earlier “Ellen”), which ran for 18 episodes on CBS in 2001–02, as Mull Ed Munn. , He starred in “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” as Major Willard Craft from 1997-2000.

The dueling show was based on “Hollywood Squares” over a period of 425 episodes from 1998–2004, many of them middle class in nature.

Martin Eugene Mull was born in Chicago, his mother was an actress and director and his father a chipper. The guys moved to North Ridgeville, Ohio, when he was 2 years old; When he was 15, he moved to Fresh Canaan, Connecticut. He studied painting and graduated from the Rhode Island Faculty of Design with a Bachelor of Super Arts and a Master of Super Arts degree in Painting.

Mull first broke into the screen industry not as an actor or comedian but as a songwriter, writing Jane Morgan’s 1970 country film “A Girl Named Johnny Cash,” which was at its peak. 61 on Billboard’s country chart. Shortly thereafter he began his own personal recording business.

He composed the theme music for the 1970 anthology “The 51st State” and was a track producer on the 1971 film “Jump.”

During the nineteen seventies, and especially the first half of the decade, Mull was known as a musical comedian, performing satirical and funny songs both live and in studio recordings. He opened for Randy Newman, Frank Zappa and Bruce Springsteen at various live shows in the early 70s.

Their self-titled debut, which was released in 1972, included such great musicians as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, the Band’s Levon Helm, NRBQ’s Keith Spring, and Libby Titus. Alternative albums include 1973’s “Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your Living Room,” 1974’s “Normal,” “Days of Wine and Neurosis” (1975), “No Hits, Four Errors: The Best of Martin Mull.” (1977) were included. , “Sex and Violins” (1978) and “I’m Everyone I’ve Ever Loved.” According to a profile on the AV Membership Web site, Mull “earned a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with the single ‘Dueling Tubas.'” His early albums were recorded for Georgia-based Capricorn News which currently releases the Allman Brothers and others. Were closely associated with southern rockers.

Club interview, Mull was asked how a painter found his way into acting, to which he replied: “You know, every painter I know works a day job. They are either teaching art in some college or driving a cab or something else. And I luckily got a day job that’s extraordinary and a lot of fun and buys a lot of paint.”

“As far as acting goes, I’ve had a music career for about 17 years, I’ve had bands and all that, and it just boils down to my wife and I playing big rooms in Vegas, and you can do that Don’t ask for more. There were limousines and everything else. But I thought I’d try my hand at it. Write For television. And I got to do an interview with Norman Lear, and I was a big fan of ‘Mary Hartman.’ I went in and talked to him, oh I’d say a good time. We had a very good conversation. And later he said, ‘We don’t need any writer. Nice to meet you. I’ll see you.’ And then six months later I got a call to come and study for a part.”

He then received attention for playing Barth Gimble in the syndicated series “Fernwood 2 Night.” He played one of the lowest management roles of his career in the 1980 broad comedy “Serial,” a satire of the incident in Marin County. which stars Harvey Holroyd as, in the words of Mull’s Technicolor Desires weblog, “the smart-ass audience member who verbally challenges every aspect of Marin’s cool lifestyle.”

Also in 1980, Mull had a supporting role in Tony Bill’s “My Bodyguard” as the hotel-manager father of Chris Makepeace’s hero Clifford. In “Mr. Mom” ​​(1983), Michael Keaton used to be a stay-at-home dad, Terry Garr used to be a running mom, and Martin Mull is the timid president of an advertising agency who plans to promote Garr into his life. Making. ,” in the words of Roger Ebert.

In 1984 Steve Martin and Martin Mull teamed up to create the sitcom “Domestic Life”, starring Mull as a Seattle TV commentator whose young son runs a very successful business out of his room and loans money to his people, but the CBS series Only Tiki 10 episodes.

The actors were part of the group in Robert Altman’s satirical, little-known satire of the lives of high school boys, “Ossie & Stiggs” (1985). Mull, of that generation, also played Colonel Mustard in “Clue”, an adaptation of The Board Duel, one of the film roles for which he is best remembered.

He starred in and wrote the screenplay for another little known film, “Rented Lips” (1988), directed by Robert Downey Sr.

Mull attempted series-regular television once again, appearing opposite Stephanie Faracy on NBC’s “His & Hers”, disappearing for the next 13 episodes in 1990, and appearing on “The Jackie Thomas Show” (1992). , which starred Tom Arnold and ran for a long time. ABC next 18 episodes.

The actor began his voiceover sidelines with 1993’s “Family Dog”, an early Brad Chicken collection, in which he provided control vocals.

Mull guest-starred as himself in two episodes of Garry Shandling’s HBO anthology “The Larry Sanders Show” in 1992–93. She also had a supporting role in Robin Williams’ 1993 disaster “Mrs. doubt fire.”

Educated as a painter, Mull had practiced his art since the 1970s, and his paintings appeared in both staff and solo shows. One of his artworks, Then Dinner Beverages (2008), owned by Steve Martin, was created to protect a copy of Martin and Edie Brickell’s “Love Has Come for You”.

He is survived by his wife, the former Wendy Haas, an actor and musician, whom he married in 1982, and their daughter Maggie, a TV writer and producer.