Martin Mull, the reliably hilarious screen presence of and , died Thursday, his daughter confirmed on . 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,” .
“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 com.