Martin Mull, Actor of 'Clue' and 'Arrested Development,' Dies at 80

Martin Mull, the musician and comedic actor who got his start with the 1970s television series Fernwood 2 Night and went on to play Colonel Mustard on Clue and in Arrested Development and Roseanne, died Thursday. He was 80 years old.

His daughter Maggie announcedhis death on Instagramwriting I am sorry to tell you that my father passed away at home on June 27th, after a courageous battle with a long illness. He was known for excelling in every creative discipline imaginable and also for making commercials for Red Roof Inn. He thought that joke was funny. He never failed to laugh. My father will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, his friends and co-workers, his fellow artists, comedians and musicians, and by many, many dogs, a sign of a truly exceptional person. I loved him very much.

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

He guest-starred in 2015 on the NBC comedy Community as George Perry, the father of Gillian Jacobs Britta Perry, and on the CBS comedy Life in Pieces.

Mull had a recurring role from 2008 to 2013 on Two and a Half Men as Russell, a pharmacist who uses and sells drugs illegally and attended Charlie's funeral in the season 9 premiere episode. The actor also returned in Arrested Development as a rather inept private detective named Gene Parmesan who has a habit of showing up in insane disguises.

Mull was a regular character on Seth MacFarlane's Fox comedy series Dads, starring Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as the owners of a video game company, in 2013–2014, playing the father of Ribisi's character.

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

Mull's film and television career really began with his stint as talk show host Barth Gimble on the wickedly satirical Norman Lear-created television series Fernwood 2 Night, which was later retitled America Tonight, in 1977 and 1978 The mock talk show also featured FredWillard. starring as Gimbles' dim-witted sidekick, Jerry Hubbard. These shows were spin-offs of Lears' flagship soap opera, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

Willard and Mull reappeared in the 1985 HBO mockumentary The History of White People in America. Mull played Roseannes' gay boss Leon Carp in his ABC sitcom of the same title from 1991 to 1997, and he reunited with Willard for a 1995 episode of the series in which the two were featured in what was certainly the one of the first televised gay weddings.

On Ellen De Generes' sitcom The Ellen Show (not to be confused with the earlier series Ellen), which ran for 18 episodes on CBS in 2001–2002, Mull was a series regular as Ed Munn. He appeared on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch as Headmaster Willard Kraft from 1997 to 2000.

From 1998 to 2004, Mull was a regular on the game show Hollywood Squares in a run of 425 episodes, many as the central square.

Martin Eugene Mull was born in Chicago to an actress and director mother and a carpenter father. The family moved to North Ridgeville, Ohio, when he was 2; at age 15, they moved to New Canaan, Connecticut. He studied painting and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Mull got his start in show business not as an actor or comedian but as a songwriter, writing Jane Morgan's country single A Girl Named Johnny Cash in 1970, which reached number 61 place on the Billboard country charts. He began his own recording career soon after.

He composed the theme song for the 1970 series The 51st State, and he was the music producer for the 1971 film Jump.

Throughout the 1970s, and particularly in the first half of the decade, Mull was best known as a musical comedian, performing satirical and humorous songs both live and in studio recordings. He opened for Randy Newman, Frank Zappa, and Bruce Springsteen at various concerts in the early 1970s.

His self-titled debut album, released in 1972, featured notable musicians including Ramblin' Jack Elliott, The Band's Levon Helm, NRBQ's Keith Spring and Libby Titus. Other albums included 1974's Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your Living Room, Normal, Days of Wine and Neuroses (1975), No Hits, Four Errors: The Best of Martin Mull (1977), Sex and Violins (1978) and I'm Everyone I've Ever Loved. According to aprofile on the AV Clubwebsite, Mulla scored a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with the single Dueling Tubas. His first albums were recorded for Georgia-based Capricorn Records, which was closely associated with the Allman Brothers and other southern rockers of the era.

In the AV During an interview with the club, Mull was asked how a painter found his way to acting, to which he replied: You know, every painter I know has a day job. They either teach art at a university or they drive a cab or something. And I was lucky enough to have an amazing, really fun day job that allows me to buy a lot of paint.

As far as acting goes, I had a music career on the road for about 17 years, I had bands and whatnot, and it boiled down to my wife and I playing big venues in Vegas, and you couldn't ask for more than that. There were limousines and suites and everything else. But I got tired of that. So I thought I'd try my hand atin writingFor television. I had an interview with Norman Lear, I was a big fan of Mary Hartman. I went there and talked to him for, oh, I'd say a good hour. We had a great conversation. And afterwards he said to me: “We don’t need writers. It was nice meeting you. We'll see each other. »And then six months later, I got a call to come audition for a role.

After the attention he received for playing Barth Gimble in the syndicated series Fernwood 2 Night, he played one of the few leading roles of his career in the 1980 comedy Serial, a satire of life in the county from Marin.

Also in 1980, Mull had a supporting role in Tony Bill's My Bodyguard as the hotel manager father of Chris Makepeace's protagonist, Clifford. In Mr. Mom (1983), Michael Keaton was the stay-at-home dad, Teri Garr was the working mom, and Martin Mull was the sneaky ad agency president, with plans to promote Garr in his own life, according to the following terms: by Roger Ebert.

In 1984, Steve Martin and Martin Mull teamed up to create the sitcom Domestic Life, in which Mull played a Seattle TV commentator whose teenage son runs wildly successful businesses out of his bedroom and makes loans to his parents, but the CBS series lasted only 10 episodes.

The actor starred alongside Robert Altman in his little-known satirical take on high school life, O.C. and Stiggs (1985). That year, Mull also played Colonel Mustard in the board game adaptation Clue, one of the film roles for which he is best known.

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

Mull again attempted series regularity as a guest star opposite Stephanie Faracy on NBC's His & Hers, which departed after 13 episodes in 1990, and on The Jackie Thomas Show (1992), starring Tom Arnold and departed from ABC after 18 episodes.

The actor began his voice-over work with 1993's Family Dog, an early Brad Bird series in which he provided the lead voice.

Mull guest-starred as himself in two episodes of Garry Shandling's HBO series The Larry Sanders Show in 1992-93. He also had a supporting role in Robin Williams' 1993 hit film Mrs. Doubtfire.

Trained in painting, Mull has been practicing his art since the 1970s and his works are presented in group and individual exhibitions. One of his paintings, After Dinner Drinks (2008), which belongs to Steve Martin, was used for the cover of Love Has Come for You, an album by Martin and Edie Brickell.

He is survived by his wife, the former Wendy Haas, an actress and composer whom he married in 1982, and his daughter Maggie, a television writer and producer.