At the age of 80, comedian and actor Martin Mull from Roseanne and Arrested Development passes away.

The Associated Press

Martin Mull participates in »The Cool Kids« panel during the Fox Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour at The Beverly Hilton hotel on Aug. Mull's daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness. «Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood Tonight». “In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,« Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. »

“He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

'Backstage With' Fred Willard And Martin Mull

His time on the Strip was memorialized in the 1973 country rock classic “Lonesome L. On “Fernwood Tonight” , he played Barth Gimble, the host of a local talk show in a midwestern town and twin to his “Mary Hartman” character. Fred Willard, a frequent collaborator with very similar comic sensibilities, played his sidekick. He would get to be a real talk show host as a substitute for Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show. ” He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie adaptation of the board game “Clue,” which, like many things Mull appeared in, has become a cult classic.

Willard was again a co-star. His co-star Jennifer Tilly said in an X post Friday that Mull was “such a witty charismatic and kind person. In the 1990s he was best known for his recurring role on several seasons on “Roseanne,” in which he played a warmer, less sleazy boss to the title character, an openly gay man whose partner was played by Willard, who died in 2020. Mull would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” a cult-classic character on a cult-classic show, and would be nominated for an Emmy, his first, in 2016 for a guest run on “Veep.

“It might go all the way back to ‘Fernwood. “Martin was the greatest,” “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig said on X. Fernwood Tonight was so influential in my life. Mull is survived by his daughter and musician Wendy Haas, his wife since 1982.