Martin Marr attends the “Cool Kids” panel during the Fox Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on August 2, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.
Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
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Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
LOS ANGELES — Martin Mull has died, his daughter said Friday. He became a beloved guest star in sitcoms such as “Hindered.”
Marr’s daughter, TV writer and cartoonist Maggie Marr, said her father died Thursday at his home after “a courageous battle with a long illness.”
Marr, also a guitarist and painter, is best known for her recurring role on Norman Lear’s satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and He became nationally famous for his starring role in its spin-off Fernwood Tonight.
“He was known for being good at every creative field imaginable and was also known for his Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull posted on Instagram. “He would have found the joke funny. He never None of it is funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughters, his friends and colleagues, other artists, comedians and musicians, and many, many dogs – the mark of a truly remarkable man .
Marr, who was born in Chicago, grew up in Ohio and Connecticut, and studied art in Rhode Island and Rome, is known for his blond hair and neatly trimmed mustache.
His first foray into show business was as a songwriter, writing the 1970 semi-hit “A Girl Named Johnny Cash” for singer Jane Morgan.
He combined music and comedy to bring the show to the hip Hollywood clubs of the 1970s.
“In 1976, I was a guitarist and comedian at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard my voice,” Marr told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, as a wife-beater. After four months, I was ripped from my show.
The 1973 country-rock classic “Lonesome LA Cowboy” commemorates his time on the Las Vegas Strip and features the Riders of the Purple Sage and music superstar Kris Kristofferson Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge both praised him.
“I know Chris and Rita and Mattie Marr were hanging out at the Troubadour,” the song goes.
In “Fernwood Tonight” (sometimes called “Fernwood 2 Night”), he played Barth Gimble, the host of a local talk show in a small Midwestern town, and his character ” Mary Hartman’s character’s twin. Fred Willard, a frequent collaborator with a very similar sense of comedy, plays his assistant. It was later renamed “American 2 Nights” and set in Southern California.
He would become a true talk show host, replacing Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.”
Moore often played characters who were a little bit nasty, a little slimy, and often cunning, as he did when he played Terry Garr’s boss and Michael Keaton’s nemesis in 1983’s “Mr.” Mother. In 1985, he played Colonel Mustard in the film adaptation of the board game Clue, which, like many of the works Marr appeared in, has become a cult classic.
The 1980s also brought what many consider his best work, A History of White America, a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Moore co-created the series and plays a “60 Minutes”-style investigative reporter looking into all things vile and mundane. Willard once again co-stars.
In 1988, he co-wrote and starred in the film “Rented Lips” with Robert Downey Jr., whose father, Robert Sr. Sr.) serves as director.
His co-star Jennifer Tilly said in an X post on Friday that Marr was “a very witty, charming, kind person.”
In the 1990s, he became known for his recurring role on several seasons of “Roseanne,” in which he played a warmer, less sleazy boss for the title character. An openly gay man whose partner was played by Willard, who died in 2020.
Marr later starred as private detective Gene Palmasan on Arrested Development, a cult classic show, and was nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for his guest role on Veep. His first Emmy nomination.
“I’m very proud of what I did on ‘Veep,’ but I think it’s probably more collective, and at my age, it’s more collective,” Marr told The Associated Press after her nomination. “It probably goes back to ‘Fernwood.'”
Other comedians and actors are often his biggest fans.
“Martin is the greatest,” Bridesmaids director Paul Feig said on X. I was lucky enough to be on “The Jackie Thomas Show” with him and cherish every moment with the legend. Fernwood Tonight had such an impact on my life.
Mull is survived by his daughter, musician Wendy Haas, his wife since 1982;
