Legendary TV Star Passes Away at 80
The television world has lost a funny one.
Martin Mull, a beloved comedian and veteran star of numerous hit TV shows, died this week at the age of 80.
According to the actor’s daughter, who broke the sad news via Instagram, Mull had been battling an illness for an unspecified period of time.
“I am heartbroken to share that my father passed away at home on June 27th, after a valiant fight against a long illness,” his daughter wrote by way of confirmation, adding:
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials.
“He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny.”
The actor rose to prominent in the 1970s after starring in the soap opera parody series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and its spinoffs, Fernwood 2 Night and America 2 Night.
Small screen viewers in the 1990s knew Mull from his roles on such famous shows as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and Roseanne.
Later in his very impressive and respected career, Mull appeared and starred in Two and a Half Men, Arrested Development, The Ranch, and The Cool Kids.
In 2016, he was nominated for an Emmy for his guest role on Veep.
From 1998 through 2004, Mull also was a regular on game show Hollywood Squares in a run of 425 episodes, many of them as the all-important center square.
In a previous A.V. Club interview, Mull — who studied painting and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in painting — was asked how a painter found his way into acting, to which he replied:
“You know, every painter I know has a day job. They’re either teaching art at some college or driving a cab or whatever.
“And I just happened to luck into a day job that’s extraordinary and a lot of fun and buys a lot of paint.”
Concluded Mull’s daughter in her lovely tribute:
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. I loved him tremendously.
Martin Mull is survived by his wife, the former Wendy Haas, an actor and composer whom he married in 1982; and his daughter Maggie, a TV writer and producer.
We send our condolences to his friends, family members and loved ones. May Mull rest in peace.
