Martin Mull

Martin Eugene Mull[1] (born August 18, 1943)[2] is an American actor and comedian who has appeared in many television and film roles. He is also a painter and recording artist. As an actor, he first became known in his role on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and its spin-off Fernwood 2 Night. Among his other notable roles are Colonel Mustard in the 1985 film Clue, Leon Carp on Roseanne, Willard Kraft on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, 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 drug-using, humorous pharmacist.

Martin Mull
Mull in 2018
Birth name	Martin Eugene Mull
Born	August 18, 1943 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality	American
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

Early years and education

Mull was born in Chicago, the son of Betty, an actress and director, and Harold Mull, a carpenter.[3] 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.[4] He studied painting and graduated in 1965 from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts; in 1967 he earned a Master of Fine Arts in painting, also from RISD.[5]

Career

Musical career

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.

Mull in 1976

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 the stage trappings of most musical acts, Mull would decorate his stage with comfortable thrift store furniture.[6] Notable live gigs included opening for Randy Newman and Sandy Denny at Boston Symphony Hall in 1973;[7] 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.[8] Elvis Costello and Gary Sperrazza attribute the remark, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" to Martin Mull.[9][10]

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Martin Mull among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[11]

Acting career

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 comedy talk shows Fernwood 2 Night (1977) and America 2-Night (1978), in which he played talk show host Barth Gimble (Garth Gimble's twin brother), opposite Fred Willard, as sidekick Jerry Hubbard. Mull also played 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 a supporting role in the film Mr. Mom. 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.

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.[12]

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

Artistic career

Mull has been a painter since 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 Art to protest the lack of contemporary and local art in the museum.[13] His work often combines photorealist painting, and the pop art and collage styles.[14] 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.[15] Another painting, owned by Steve Martin titled After Dinner Drinks (2008), was used for the cover of Love Has Come for You, an album by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.[16]

Personal life

Twice divorced, Mull is married to singer Wendy Haas. They have a daughter, Maggie.[17][18][19][20]

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."[21]

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1978	FM	Eric Swan
1980	Serial	Harvey Holroyd
1980	My Bodyguard	Mr. Peache
1981	Take This Job and Shove It	Dick Ebersol
1983	Mr. Mom	Ron Richardson
1983	Private School	Pharmacy Guy	Uncredited
1984	Bad Manners	Warren Fitzpatrick	aka Growing Pains
1985	Television Parts	Himself
1985	California Girls	Elliot
1985	Clue	Colonel Mustard
1985	O.C. and Stiggs	Pat Coletti
1986	The Boss' Wife	Tony Dugdale
1988	Rented Lips	Archie Powell
1988	Portrait of a White Marriage	Himself (as talk show host)
1989	Cutting Class	William Carson III
1990	Ski Patrol	Sam Marris
1990	Far Out Man	Dr. Leddledick
1992	Miracle Beach	Donald Burbank
1993	Mrs. Doubtfire	Justin Gregory
1994	How the West Was Fun	Bart Gifooley
1994	Mr. Write	Dan Barnes
1996	Edie & Pen	Johnnie Sparkle
1996	Jingle All the Way	D.J.
1996	101 Dalmatians	Wildlife Presenter
1997	Beverly Hills Family Robinson	Doug Robinson
1998	Zack and Reba	Virgil Payne
1998	Richie Rich's Christmas Wish	Richard Rich Sr.
2000	Attention Shoppers	Charles
2002	The Year That Trembled	Wayne Simonelli
2004	A Boyfriend for Christmas	Martin Grant
2006	Relative Strangers	Jeffry Morton
2010	Killers	Holbrook
2011	Oliver's Ghost	Clive Rutledge
2013	Tim's Vermeer	Himself
2018	A Futile and Stupid Gesture	Modern Doug Kenney

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1976–1977	Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman	Garth Gimble / Barth Gimble
1977	Fernwood 2 Night	Barth Gimble
1977	The New Adventures of Wonder Woman	Hamlin Rule/Pied Piper	Episode: "The Pied Piper"
1978	America 2-Night	Barth Gimble
1979	Taxi	Roger Chapman	Episode: "Hollywood Calling"
1984	Domestic Life	Martin Crane
1985	The History of White People in America	Himself
1985	Lots of Luck	Frank Maris	Television film
1990	The Golden Girls	Jimmy	Episode: "Snap Out of It"
1991	Get a Life	Sandy Connors
1991–1997	Roseanne	Leon Carp	46 episodes
1992–1993	The Larry Sanders Show	Himself
1993	Family Dog	Skip Binsford (voice)
1994	Burke's Law	Wayne Hudson	Episode: "Who Killed Good Time Charlie?"
1995	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman	Marlin Pfinch-Lupus	Episode: "Whine, Whine, Whine"
1997	Over the Top	Brookes Jenson	Episode: "The Review"
1997–2000	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Willard Kraft	73 episodes
1998	The Simpsons	Seth (voice)	Episode: "D'oh-in' in the Wind"
2000	Family Guy	Mr. Harris (voice)	Episode: "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'"
2000	Just Shoot Me!	Stan	Episode: "Slamming Jack"
2001–2002	The Ellen Show	Ed Munn	18 episodes
2001	That '70s Show	Voice of Donna's journal	Episode: "Eric's Drunken Tattoo
2002	Dexter's Laboratory	M.A.R. 10 (voice)	Episode: "Lab on the Run"
2002	Teamo Supremo	Governor Kevin (voice)
2003	Reba	Dr. Todd	Episode: "Encounters"
2004	Reno 911!	Jim Kringle
2004–2007	Danny Phantom	Vlad Plasmius/Vlad Masters (voice)	16 episodes
2004–2013	Arrested Development	Gene Parmesan	4 episodes
2005–2011	American Dad!	Father Donovan (voice)	10 episodes
2007	The War at Home	Principal Fink
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Dr. Gideon Hutton	Episode: "Retro"
2008	My Boys	Dr. Clayton	Episode: "Opportunity Knocks"
2008–2013	Two and a Half Men	Russell	6 episodes
2010	'Til Death	Whitey / Mr. White	12 episodes
2013	Psych	Highway Harry	Episode: "100 Clues"
2013–2014	Dads	Crawford Whittemore	19 episodes
2015	Community	George Perry	2 episodes
2015–2017	Life in Pieces	Gary Timpkins	4 episodes
2016	Veep	Bob Bradley	4 episodes Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
2016–2018	The Ranch	Jerry	7 episodes
2017	NCIS: Los Angeles	Eddie (Edward O'Boyle)	Episode: "Old Tricks"
2017–present	I'm Sorry	Martin	6 episodes
2018–2019	The Cool Kids	Charlie	Main role
2020	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Admiral Walter Peralta	Episode: "Admiral Peralta"
2020	Bless This Mess	Martin	Episode: "The Table"
2020	Bob's Burgers	Shopkeeper (voice)	Episode: "Local She-ro"

Video games

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2005	Nicktoons Unite!	Vlad Plasmius	Voice
2006	Nicktoons Winners Cup Racing	Vlad Plasmius	Voice

Discography

• Martin Mull (1972)
• "Dueling Tubas" (Single) charted at #92 on Billboard's Hot 100 (1973)
• Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your Living Room! (1973)
• Normal (1974)
• In the Soop with Martin Mull (also with: Ed Wise and Les Daniels) (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)
• Sex & Violins (1978)
• Near Perfect/Perfect (1979)
• Mulling It Over – A Musical Ouvre-View of Martin Mull (1998)

References

1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-06-24. Retrieved 2014-11-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
2. "Today in history". The New York Times. Associated Press. 2014-08-18. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
3. Ely, Robert (December 7, 1979). "Martin Mull has interest in art, penchant for humor". St. Petersburg Times.
4. "Martin Mull". Patterson & Associates. Archived from the original on 2016-04-13. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
5. "Martin Mull Witnesses the "Madness"". www.risd.edu. Rhode Island School of Design. 2013-04-24. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
6. https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/03/archives/martin-mulls-fabulous-furniture.html
7. "The Tech, (May 11, 1973)". Learningace.com. Retrieved 2016-08-26.
8. "The History of the Band, (March 2013)". Theband.hiof.no. Retrieved 2016-08-26.
9. "Writing About Music". Quote Investigator. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
10. "Quotes Uncovered: Dancing About Architecture". Freakonomics. 2010-12-30. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
11. Rosen, Jody (25 June 2019). "Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
12. "FutonCritic.com page on Gary Unmarried". Thefutoncritic.com. 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2016-08-26.
13. Cook, Greg (June 15, 2011). "Local Artists Commemorate -and re-stage -a legendary protest". The Phoenix. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
14. Martin Mull, Artnet
15. Format Follies, Pt. 3, Christopher Currie, Furious Horses (blog), April 1, 2009
16. Neale, April (2013). "Steve Martin's 'Love has Come For You' celebrates Martin Mull's artistry, tour dates (VIDEO) Archived 2014-05-25 at the Wayback Machine", MonstersAndCritics.com.
17. Biography for Martin Mull at IMDb
18. Wojciechowski, Michele "Wojo" (2013). "FOX’s Dads Star Martin Mull: The Accidental Comedian", Parade.CondeNast.com.
19. "Martin Mull Biography", TvGuide.com.
20. Lavin, Cheryl (1994). "Martin Mull", ChicagoTribune.com.
21. The Green Room with Paul Provenza, July 15, 2010

External links

• Martin Mull at IMDb
• Martin Mull on Artnet