A lot of people loved comedian and actor Martin Mull. He died at the age of 80, according to his family.
Maggie Mull, Mull’s daughter, posted the sad news on Instagram, saying that her father had died at home “after a valiant fight against a long illness.”
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” she told us.
“That joke would make him laugh.” He was always funny. Friends, coworkers, fellow artists, comedians, musicians, and, most importantly, many, many dogs will miss my dad very much. His wife and daughter will also miss him a lot. I loved him very much.”
Mull was most likely best known for his roles as coach Willard Kraft on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and as Roseanne Connor’s friend Leon Carp on the sitcom of the same name.
He also played the private eye Gene Parmesean on the show Arrested Development.
Mull was nominated for his first and only Emmy in 2016 for his role as Bob Bradley on Veep.
Mull had a lot of different jobs over the course of his career. For example, he worked with Fred Willard to write the 1985 mockumentary The History of White People in America.
He loved writing songs and making people laugh. In the early 1970s, country music star Jane Morgan recorded his song A Girl Named Johnny Cash, which was a parody of A Boy Named Sue.
It stayed on the Hot Country Songs chart on Billboard for five weeks.
Mull played the guitar in nightclubs and sang parody songs for a living. He even opened for Frank Zappa, Randy Newman, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel.
A review on AllMusic.com said, “Mull’s strange sense of humor is clear on all of his albums, but he’s not a parody artist like Weird Al.”
“His albums are skewed singer/songwriter, pop/rock with a strong jazz influence, which just happen to have funny lyrics.”
