Cluedo actor arrested at 80

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

His daughter Maggie announced his death on Instagramwriting, “I am heartbroken to report that my father passed away at home on June 27th after a valiant battle with a long illness. He was known for excelling in every creative discipline imaginable and also for directing commercials for Red Roof Inn. He would find this joke funny. He was never funny. My father will be greatly missed by his wife and daughter, his friends and colleagues, his fellow artists, comedians and musicians, and, as a sign of a truly exceptional person, many, many dogs. I loved him very much.”

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

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

Mull had a recurring role from 2008 to 2013 in “Two and a Half Men” as Russell, a pharmacist who uses and sells drugs illegally and who attended Charlie's funeral in the first episode of season 9. The actor also appeared in “Arrested Development” as a rather incompetent private investigator named Gene Parmesan who has a habit of appearing in crazy disguises.

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

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

Mull's film and television career began in 1977 and 1978 when he served as host of a satirical talk show created by Norman Lear, “Fernwood 2 Night,” which was later renamed “America Tonight.” This parody talk show also starred Fred Willard as Jerry Hubbard, Gimble's dim-witted sidekick. These shows were spin-offs of the Norman Lear parody soap opera, “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”

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Willard, who died in 2020 at age 86, and Mull reappeared in the 1985 HBO mockumentary “The History of White People in America.” Mull played Roseanne's gay boss, Leon Carp, on her 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 appeared in what was certainly one of television's first gay marriages.

In the Ellen De Generes sitcom “The Ellen Show” (not to be confused with the earlier “Ellen”), which ran for 18 episodes on CBS in 2001-02, Mull was a series regular in the role of Ed Munn. He returned to “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” as Principal Willard Kraft from 1997 to 2000.

From 1998 to 2004, Mull was a regular guest on the game show “Hollywood Squares” in a series of 425 episodes, many of which were set in 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 No. 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 was the musical producer for the 1971 film “Jump.”

Throughout the 1970s, and especially 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, Levon Helm of the band, Keith Spring of NRBQ and Libby Titus. Other albums included 1974's “Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your Living Room,” 1975's “Normal,” 1974's “Days of Wine and Neuroses,” 1977's “No Hits, Four Errors: The Best of Martin Mull,” 1978's “Sex and Violins,” and 1979's “I'm Everyone I've Ever Loved.” According to a profile on AV Club website, Mull achieved “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 Club interview, Mull was asked how a painter found his way into acting, to which he responded, “You know, every painter I know has a day job. Either they teach art at a university or they drive a taxi or something. And I've been 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 stuff, and it came down to my wife and I playing big venues in Vegas, and we couldn't ask for more than that. There were limousines and suites and all that. But I got tired of it. So I thought I'd give it a try in writing for television. And I wanted to have an interview with Norman Lear, and I was a big fan of “Mary Hartman.” I went in and talked to him for, oh, I'd say a good hour. We had a great conversation. And then he said, “We don’t need writers. It was a pleasure to meet you. See you soon.' And then six months later, I got a call to come read for a role.

After the attention he received for his role as 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 Marin County in which Harvey Holyroyd, played by Mull, acts, in the words of the blog Technicolor Dreams, “as the audience surrogate, who verbally questions every facet of the laid-back Marin lifestyle.”

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 “is the sneaky president of the ad agency, with plans to promote Garr in his own life », in the words of Roger Ebert.

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

The actor was part of Robert Altman's team in his little-known satirical adaptation of high school life, “OC and Stiggs” (1985). That year, Mull also played Colonel Mustard in “Clue,” an adaptation of the board game, 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” directed by Robert Downey Sr. (1988).

Mull tried series regular television again, starring opposite Stephanie Faracy in NBC's “His & Hers,” which disappeared after 13 episodes in 1990, and in “The Jackie Thomas Show” (1992), with Tom Arnold and disappeared from ABC after 18 episodes. 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 played 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, “Mrs. Fire of doubt.

A painter by training, 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), owned by 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, Wendy Haas, an actress and composer whom he married in 1982, and his daughter Maggie, a television writer and producer.