Martin Mull, who was known for TV shows like “Arrested Development” and “Roseanne” as well as movies like 1985’s “Clue” and 1983’s “Mr. Mom,” has died. He was 80 years old.
Mull’s daughter said the comic and actor died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role in the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood Tonight,” on which he played Barth Gimble, the host of a satirical talk show.
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“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” his daughter, Maggie Mull, a TV writer, said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and—the sign of a truly exceptional person—by many, many dogs.”
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“Simpsons” actor Harry Shearer wrote on his social media: “Took me a moment to grasp that Martin Mull has passed. During the late 70s, we worked together on Fernwood Tonight & its successor series. We wrote together, often at the beach (!), and sometimes I’d come out and riff with him. Mucho laffs! Always a treat to be with. RIP MM.”
Before his TV and movie success, Mull performed his music and comedy in Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
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He told The Associated Press in 1980: “In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me. He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later, I was spun off on my own show.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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