R.I.P. Martin Mull, legendary comedy star of Fernwood 2 Night and Clue

Martin Mull, the reliably hilarious screen presence of Clue and Arrested Development, died Thursday, his daughter confirmed on Instagram. He was 80.

“I am heartbroken to share that my father passed away at home on June 27th after a valiant fight against a long illness,” Maggie Mull wrote. “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. 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.”

Born in Chicago, Mull spent his early life in Ohio before moving to Connecticut with his family as a teenager. He was always interested in the arts and received his master’s from the Rhode Island School of Design in the late ‘60s. Mull would continue painting throughout his life.

“I’ve been painting all along,” Mull told The A.V. Club in 2013. “All of this has been a way to try to put paint on my table. [Laughs.] 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.”

Mull’s mere presence caused Jessica Walters’ Lucille Bluth to squeal with glee, and his bearded, bespectacled visage did the same to TV audiences over the last 40 years. But Mull was a well-known musical comedy act before Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman made him and Fred Willard alt-comedy legends, and he spent the better half of the ‘70s opening for Frank Zappa and Randy Newman. He even gets a shoutout in the New Riders Of The Purple Sage classic, “Lonesome L.A. Cowboy,” commemorating him as an essential part of the era’s Sunset Strip milieu.

After 17 years on the road, Mull ended up “playing big rooms in Vegas” but “got sick” of the “limousines and suites.” Using an “in” with Norman Lear, he thought he’d try his hand at T.V. writing. “I went in and talked to him for, oh, I would say a good hour. We had a great chat. And afterward he said, ‘We don’t need any writers. It’s been nice meeting you. I’ll see you.’ And then six months later I got a call to come in and read for a part. I had never acted in anything except my draft physical. [Laughs.] And I went in, and, lo and behold, I got the thing. And that’s what started it.”

Norman Lear’s absurdist soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman made Mull one of America’s coolest comedians, but the show’s spin-off, Fernwood 2 Night, made him a legend. The intensely meta series saw Mull and Willard hosting the late-night talk show set within Mary Hartman, allowing their fast-talking insults and ironic sense of humor to inspire a generation of alt-comedians. Fernwood’s meta worldbuilding can still be felt in the alt-comedy universes of On Cinema and The Best Show.

Though never a marquee star, Mull continued to rack up credits in the ‘80s, establishing himself as a confident and reliable player. He could slip into an all-star ensemble as in Clue or elevate a broad Hollywood comedy like Mr. Mom, with an unflappable deadpan and a sincere commitment to playing the biggest asshole he could. All the while, Mull continued to explore his comedic sensibilities on It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and his renowned HBO miniseries The History Of White People In America.

Mull was “extremely proud” of History Of White People, one of his few writing credits. Speaking to The A.V. Club in 2013, he recalled, with his typical off-the-cuff irony, “What was nice about it, though, was that I got free Mexican food from a place. They said, ‘Oh, man, you do that show that makes fun of white people! Here, it’s on us!’ [Laughs.] I just thought we had a great cast, it was a joy to write, and we won the Writers Guild Award for it and a Cable ACE back when they gave those out.”

One would be hard-pressed to name a sitcom made in the last 30 years that Mull didn’t grace. Two And Half Men, Brooklyn 99, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and The Larry Sanders Show all welcomed Mull to elevate a scene or two. He played Rosanne’s gay boss on Rosanne, marrying his frequent screen partner Fred Willard in one of TV’s first gay weddings. He staked his claims over cult classics, such as Get A Life and Family Dog, but his appearance as Gene Parmesan on Arrested Development made him a hero to a new generation. We shouldn’t be surprised. Between his inconspicuous disguises and her delighted squee, the private detective proves his Lucielle correct: He is very good.

Though he quietly battled illness, Mull continued to work. In 2023, he appeared on three episodes of Not Dead Yet, two episodes of The Afterparty, and reprised his Danny Phantom character, Vald Plasmius, for a Nickelodeon video game.

Mull is survived by his third wife, Wendy, and his daughter, Maggie.