‘Roseanne’ Star Dead At 80 After Long Battle With Illness

Martin Mull, best known for his roles in “Arrested Development” and “Roseanne” has died at the age of 80.

Mull’s daughter announced that he died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”

“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” his daughter, 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.”

Martin Mull as Gene Parmesan was such a rememberable character in Arrested Development that it’s hard to believe that he was only in one episode of the original series pic.twitter.com/XSHMTAN0Kz https://t.co/HWOQJpeoBw

— Fiona Small (@FionaSmall) June 29, 2024

“Simpsons” actor Harry Shearer wrote on his social media: “Took me a moment to grasp that Martin Mull has passed. During the late 70s, we worked together on Fernwood Tonight & its successor series. We wrote together, often at the beach (!), and sometimes I’d come out and riff with him. Mucho laffs! Always a treat to be with. RIP MM.”

Before his success in movies and TV, Mull performed his music and comedy in Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.

He told The Associated Press in 1980: “In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me. He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later, I was spun off on my own show.”

https://x.com/MikeBeauvais/status/1806836170053099824

https://x.com/DannyDeraney/status/1806842812241240365