Martin Mull

Martin Mull
Performing at the Boarding House in San Francisco, 1976 Photo: David Gans
Occupation(s)	Actor, comedian, painter, musician
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Wendy Mull (1982-present)

Martin Mull (born August 18, 1943) is an American actor who has starred in his own television sitcom and acted in prominent films. He is also a comedian, painter, and recording artist. He is a satirist and incorporates his comedic sense into all of his work.

Biography

Early years and education

Mull was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in North Ridgeville, Ohio, from age 2 to 15 years old, when his family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where he attended and graduated from public high school. He studied painting and went on to graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in painting.

Career

Following a period of stand-up comedy performances and humorous song recordings including opening for Frank Zappa at Austin's Armadillo World Headquarters in 1973, his first famous role was as twins Garth Gimble and Barth Gimble in the television nighttime absurdist soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976), which led to spin-off comedy talk shows Fernwood 2-Night (1977) and America 2-Night (1978), in which he played Barth Gimble as talk show host, opposite Fred Willard as sidekick Jerry Hubbard. In one episode of The Golden Girls, he played a hippie who was afraid of the outside world. In the 1970s, he appeared in a series of Pizza Hut commercials dealing with various ways to eat a pizza. During 1984, Mull starred in a CBS sitcom, Domestic Life, with Megan Follows playing his teenaged daughter. He had a long-running role playing the boss of lead character Roseanne Conner on the TV series Roseanne. He has appeared as a guest on the game show Hollywood Squares, appearing as the center square in the show's final season. During 2008 and 2009, Mull guest starred in two episodes of the television series Gary Unmarried as Allison's father.

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A caricature of Martin Mull in front of Hollywood Hills Amphitheater at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

He has acted in feature films, including:

• FM (1978)
• Serial (1980)
• My Bodyguard (1980)
• Take This Job and Shove It (1981)
• Mr. Mom (1983)
• Growing Pains (1984)
• Clue (1985) as Colonel Mustard
• O.C. and Stiggs (1985) as Pat Coletti
• Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) as Justin Gregory
• How the West Was Fun (1994)
• Jingle All the Way (1996)
• Five Killers (2010)

Recurring roles followed on several television series:

• It's Garry Shandling's Show
• Roseanne (as Leon Carp; 1991-1997)
• Family Dog
• Sabrina, the Teenage WitchSeason 2,3,4. as Willard Kraft, Sabrina's high-school vice principal; 1997-5/5/2000
• The Ellen Show
• Reba‘’ (2003) as a counselor
• Family Guy episode "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'" (as Mr. Harris)
• American Dad! (as Father Donovan)
• The War at Home
• Danny Phantom (as Vlad Plasmius/Vlad Masters)
• Two and a Half Men (as the pharmacist) 2008
• The Larry Sanders Show (as himself)

During the 1980s, Mull starred in a series of television commercials for Michelob and in a series of television and radio commercials for Red Roof Inn (a chain of budget-oriented hotels owned at the time by Accor) during the mid-1990s. Mull voiced a lazy robot on one episode of the cartoon series Dexter's Laboratory, in which he has a rather clueless partner, voiced by Fred Willard. Mull voiced the role of The Evil Cad on Freakazoid! He has recently (2003-2007) done the voice of Vlad Masters/Vlad Plasmius on Danny Phantom.

In 1990, he guest starred in an episode of The Golden Girls.

In 1998, he guest starred in an episode of The Simpsons.

In late 2004, he portrayed "Gene Parmesan," a private investigator who was better at showing up in strange places in strange disguises than in actually finding anything out, on the Fox TV series Arrested Development. The episode was called "¡Amigos!".

Despite devoting himself full time to painting, Martin added many acting credits in 2008, including shows such as Family Man, Two and a Half Men, Law and Order: SVU, Gary Unmarried, The New Adventures of Old Christine, The Bonnie Hunt Show, and, in 2009, in the viral advert That's Not Fake., In the animated series Family Guy, the name of the elementary school is Martin Mull Elementary.

In a thinly-veiled reference to Mull, Ben Stein wrote the following:

July 26, 1977
The comedy variety show I have been working on is finished taping for a few months. I went to the "wrap party" last night at the Bistro restaurant, a fine and fancy place. A lot of my friends from the studio were there . . . .
After an hour, the star of the show appeared with his girl friend. He is a funny guy who used to sing at small nightclubs and colleges. He played a role on Mary Hartman and then he was killed off. I begged our studio head not to lose him and he was saved for his own show, partly at my pleading request. When we first met, he called me "Ben" and was always full of jokes and pleasantries. When he got on the air, he started calling me "Benny," when he did not pass me without a word. Last night, after he had made it big, he saw me and said, "Well, look who's here." It's a standard line for people when they can't remember someone's name.
That ruined the party, even though the Bistro does make pretty good cannelloni.

Personal life

Twice divorced, Mull is married to singer Wendy Mull.

Discography

• Martin Mull (1972)
• Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture In Your Living Room! (1973)
• Normal (1974)
• In The Soop With Martin Mull (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 and Violins (1978)
• Near Perfect/Perfect (1979)
• Mulling it Over- A Musical Ouvre-View of Martin Mull (1998)

Artworks

• at Beitzel Gallery in New York City
• at Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco
• Martin Mull on Artnet
• at Hammer Gallery in Chicago
• at Samuel Freeman in Los Angeles