Mull’s daughter, TV essayist and comedian Maggie Mull, noted that her father died Thursday at home after “a valiant battle against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a regular role in the satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” and the lead role in its derivative “Fernwood Tonight”, produced by Norman Lear. ,
“He was known for excelling in every creative discipline and also for the Red Roof Inn commercials.” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post, “He’ll 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.
Mull, known for his yellow hair and well-trimmed mustache, was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut, and studied art in Rhode Island and Rome.
His first foray into the performance industry was as a songwriter, writing the 1970 semi-hit “A Girl Named Johnny Cash” for singer Jane Morgan.
He would mix music and comedy in the work he did promoting Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
Mull told The Related Press in 1980, “In 1976 I was a guitar player and comedian sitting in at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear came in and listened to me.” Hartmann, Mary Hartmann.’ After four months, I was removed from my own show.
His life on the Strip was commemorated in the 1973 country rock classic “Lonesome L.A. Cowboy”, where the Riders of the Red Sage joined music legends Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge to greet him.
The track says, “I know Chris and Rita and Marty Mule are hanging out at the Troubadour.”
In “Fernwood Tonight” (sometimes styled as “Fernwood 2 Night”), he played Barth Gimble, the host of a local communications show in the mid-western area of the city and his “Mary Hartman”. Was dual in personality. Fred Willard, a very relatable comedian, played his sidekick. It’s being produced as “America 2 Night” and I’m set in Southern California.
He would have to become a real communication screen host as a replacement for Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show”.
FILE – Wendy Haas, left, and Martin Mull introduce the Most Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, in Los Angeles. Martin Mull, whose laughs, goofy comedy and acting made him a popular sensation in the 1970s and emerged as a beloved guest superstar on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said. said on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Image via Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, report)
Mull consistently played somewhat sleazy, moderately slimy and consistently scheming characters, as he did as Terry Garr’s boss and Michael Keaton’s enemy in 1983’s “Mr. Mother.” He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 film adaptation of the board game “Clue,” which, like many things Mull has performed, has become a cult classic.
The eighties also produced what many believed to be his supreme work, “The History of White People in America”, a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the show and starred as the “60 Minutes” taste investigative reporter, investigating all things milquetoast and mundane. Willard was once again a co-star.
He wrote and starred with Robert Downey Jr. in 1988’s “Rented Lips,” which his father Robert Sr. directed.
his co-star jennifer tilly An X post on Friday said Mull was once “such a funny, charismatic and kind person.”
In the nineties she was best known for her recurring role on several seasons of “Roseanne”, in which she played an attractive, less than slutty boss to the titular personality, an openly gay man whose wife was played by Willard. had played, who died in 2020,
Mull will play non-public scene Jean Parmesan, a cult-classic personality on a cult-classic show, on the upcoming “Arrested Development,” and will be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest run on “Veep.” ,
Mull informed the AP after his nomination, “I’m very proud of what I did on ‘Veep,’ but I think it’s probably more collective, at my age, than it is more collective.” “It may go back to ‘Fernwood’.”
Alternative comedians and actors have consistently been his biggest fans.
“Martin was the greatest,” ‘Bridesmaids’ director Paul Feig Mentioned at X. “So funny, so talented, such a nice guy. I had the opportunity to star with him on The Jackie Thomas Show and I cherish every moment I spent with a legend. Fernwood Tonight was very influential in my life.
Mull is survived by his daughter and musician Wendy Haas, his wife since 1982.
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