Martin Mull Passed Away!

Martin Mull passed away from a lengthy illness.

Legendary actor and comedian Martin Mull has passed away. For me being a 1980s-1990s kid, I remember Mull being on Roseanne, Sabrina The Teenage Witch and voicing the evil Vlad Plasmius on Danny Phantom.

Mull has been around since the 1970s with the comedy series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and it soon took off. 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 being Garth Gamble.

“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “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.”

This led to work in the spin-off talk show parodies Fernwood 2 Night (1977) and America 2 Night (1978), in which he played talk show host Barth Gimble (Garth's twin brother), opposite Fred Willard, as sidekick and announcer Jerry Hubbard. Mull also appeared as the neurotic disc jockey Eric Swan in the 1978 movie FM, his feature film debut.

Martin Mull brought the laughs on Hollywood Squares.

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 supporting roles in the films Mr. Mom and Clue, and had a rare lead role in Serial. 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 from 2004 to 2007. From 1997 to 2000, Mull played Willard Kraft on the show Sabrina the Teenage Witch as Sabrina Spellman's principal in seasons 2-4.

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.

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

Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in North Ridgville, Ohio near Cleveland and the town of New Canaan, Connecticut and studied art in Providence, Rhode Island and Rome. He combined his music and comedy in hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.

Mull played Danny Phantom archnemesis Vlad Masters/Plasmius.

In the 1980s he appeared in films including “Mr. Mom” and “Clue,” and in the 1990s had a recurring role on “Roseanne.”

He would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest turn on “Veep.”

“What I did on ‘Veep’ I’m very proud of, but I’d like to think it’s probably more collective, at my age it’s more collective,” Mull told the AP after his nomination. “It might go all the way back to ‘Fernwood.’”

Other comedians and actors were often his biggest fans.

“Martin was the greatest,” “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig said in an X post. “So funny, so talented, such a nice guy. Was lucky enough to act with him on The Jackie Thomas Show and treasured every moment being with a legend. Fernwood Tonight was so influential in my life.”