Martin Mull facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Martin Mull
Mull in 1976
Birth name	Martin Eugene Mull
Born	(1943-08-18)August 18, 1943 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	June 27, 2024(2024-06-27) (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	New Canaan High School
Alma mater	Rhode Island School of Design (BFA, MFA)
Spouse	Kristin Johnson ​ ​ (m. 1972; div. 1978)​ Sandra Baker ​ ​ (m. 1978; div. 1981)​ Wendy Haas ​ (m. 1982)​
Children	1

Martin Eugene Mull (August 18, 1943 – June 27, 2024) was an American comic actor whose career included contributions as a musician and painter. Mull gained visibility on screen for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and its spin-off Fernwood 2 Night. His other notable roles include Colonel Mustard in the 1985 film Clue, Leon Carp on Roseanne, Willard Kraft on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Vlad Masters / Vlad Plasmius on Danny Phantom, and Gene Parmesan on Arrested Development. He had a recurring role on Two and a Half Men as Russell, the pharmacist.

Early life and education

Mull was born in Chicago, the son of Betty Mull, an actress and director, and Harold Mull, an acoustics engineer. He moved with his family to North Ridgeville, Ohio, when he was two years old. They lived there until he was 15 years old, when his family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut. There he attended and graduated from New Canaan High School. He studied painting and graduated in 1965 from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts; in 1967, he earned a Master of Fine Arts in painting, also from RISD.

Career

Music

Mull broke into show business as a songwriter, penning Jane Morgan's 1970 country single, "A Girl Named Johnny Cash", which peaked at No. 61 on Billboard's country charts. Shortly thereafter, he began his own recording career.

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. Rather than use the stage trappings of most musical acts, Mull would decorate his stage with comfortable thrift store furniture. Notable live gigs included opening for Randy Newman and Sandy Denny at Boston Symphony Hall in 1973; Frank Zappa at Austin's Armadillo World Headquarters in 1973; Billy Joel in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1974; and for Bruce Springsteen at the Shady Grove Music Fair in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in October 1974. His self-titled debut album, released by Capricorn in 1972, featured many noteworthy musicians, including Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Levon Helm from The Band, Keith Spring of NRBQ and Libby Titus.

Elvis Costello and Gary Sperrazza attribute the remark "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" to Martin Mull.

Acting

Mull's first well-known acting role was as Garth Gimble in the 1976 television nighttime absurdist soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. This led to work in the spin-off talk show parodies Fernwood 2 Night (1977) and America 2 Night (1978), in which he played talk show host Barth Gimble (Garth's twin brother), opposite Fred Willard, as sidekick and announcer Jerry Hubbard. Mull also appeared as the neurotic disc jockey Eric Swan in the 1978 movie FM, his feature film debut.

In 1979, Mull appeared in the Taxi episode Hollywood Calling. He created, wrote for and starred in the short-lived 1984 CBS sitcom Domestic Life, with Megan Follows playing his teenaged daughter. In one episode of The Golden Girls, he played a hippie who was afraid of the outside world. He had a long-running role as Leon Carp, Roseanne Conner's gay boss (and later business partner) on the TV series Roseanne.

During the 1980s, Mull played supporting roles in the films Mr. Mom and Clue, and had a rare lead role in Serial. He also starred in a series of commercials for Michelob and Pizza Hut, and in a series of television and radio commercials for Red Roof Inn with Fred Willard. He appeared in the Pecos Bill episode of the Shelley Duvall TV series Tall Tales & Legends. He also did the voice of Vlad Masters / Vlad Plasmius, the main villain in Danny Phantom from 2004 to 2007. From 1997 to 2000, Mull played Willard Kraft on the show Sabrina the Teenage Witch as Sabrina Spellman's high school's vice-principal in seasons 2 and 3 and then becoming her high school's principal in season 4. In the 1980s, Mull co-created and starred in The History of White People in America—the Associated Press said the mockumentary was "what many thought was his best work".

Mull has appeared as a guest star on the game show Hollywood Squares, appearing as the center square in the show's final season, from 2003 to 2004. In late 2004 and in 2013's Netflix-produced Season 4, he portrayed Gene Parmesan, a private investigator, on the TV series Arrested Development. During 2008 and 2009, Mull guest starred in two episodes of the television series Gary Unmarried, as Allison's father.

Mull also starred in the Fox sitcoms Dads and The Cool Kids, the latter with David Alan Grier, Vicki Lawrence, and Leslie Jordan.

Art

Mull began painting in the 1970s, and his work has appeared in group and solo exhibits. He participated in the June 15, 1971 exhibit "Flush with the Walls" in the men's room of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to protest the lack of contemporary and local art in the museum. His first serious one-person exhibition was held in 1980 at the Molly Barnes Gallery in Los Angeles and was credited by artist Mark Kostabi as instrumental in launching his own career because of "Mull's simultaneous embrace of humor and gravitas in visual art." His work often combined photorealist painting, and the pop art and collage styles. He published a book of some of his paintings, titled Paintings Drawings and Words, in 1995. One of his paintings was used on the cover for the 2008 Joyce Carol Oates novel My Sister, My Love. Another painting, titled After Dinner Drinks (2008), which is owned by Steve Martin, was used for the cover of Love Has Come for You, an album by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.

Personal life and death

Twice divorced, Mull was married to singer Wendy Haas. They have a daughter, Maggie, who as of 2021 is a co-executive producer for Family Guy.

In a 2010 interview on The Green Room with Paul Provenza, Mull identified himself as an agnostic, saying "I certainly don't begrudge someone else their choice to follow whatever they do, it's just for me, it doesn't make a lot of sense. I think more harm has come to this planet through organized religion, probably, than any single situation that we've invented."

Mull died at his Los Angeles home on June 27, 2024, "after a valiant fight against a long illness.”

Filmography

Film

Television

Video game

Discography

• Martin Mull (1972)
• "Dueling Tubas" (single) charted at #92 on Billboard's Hot 100 (1973); #87 in Canada; #70 in Canada AC
• Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your Living Room! (1973)
• Normal (1974)
• In the Soop with Martin Mull (with Ed Wise and Les Daniels, recorded in 1967, released in 1974)
• Days of Wine and Neuroses (1975)
• I'm Everyone I've Ever Loved (1977)
• No Hits, Four Errors – The Best of Martin Mull (1977)
• ... & Violins (1978)
• Near Perfect/Perfect (1979)
• Mulling It Over – A Musical Ouvre-View of Martin Mull (1998)

See also

In Spanish: Martin Mull para niños