Early years and education

Mull was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Betty, an actress and director, and Harold Mull, a carpenter. He moved with his family to North Ridgeville, Ohio, when he was two years old. They stayed there until he was 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.

Acting career

Mull's first well known acting role was as Garth Gimble in the 1976 television nighttime absurdist soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. This led to work in the spin-off comedy talk shows Fernwood 2 Night (1977) and America 2-Night (1978), in which he played talk show host Barth Gimble (Garth Gimble's twin brother), opposite Fred Willard, as sidekick Jerry Hubbard.

In 1979, he appeared in the Taxi episode "Hollywood Calling". Mull 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 starred in a series of commercials for Michelob and Pizza Hut, and in a series of television and radio commercials for Red Roof Inn. He appeared in the Pecos Bill episode of the Shelley Duvall TV series Tall Tales & Legends. Mull voiced the role of The Evil Cad on the 1995-97 animated series Freakazoid! He also did the voice of Vlad Masters/Vlad Plasmius, the main villain in Danny Phantom.

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 sitcom, Dads.

Musical career

Mull broke into show business as a songwriter, penning Jane Morgan's 1970 country single "A Girl Named Johnny Cash", which peaked at #61 on Billboard's country charts. Shortly thereafter, he began his own recording career.

Throughout the 1970s, and especially in the first half of the decade, Mull was best known as a musical comedian, performing satirical and humorous songs both live and in-studio recordings. Notable live gigs included opening for Randy Newman and Sandy Denny at Boston Symphony Hall in 1973, Frank Zappa at Austin's Armadillo World Headquarters in 1973 and for Bruce Springsteen at the Shady Grove Music Fair in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in October 1974. His self-titled debut Album, released by Capricorn in 1972, featured many noteworthy musicians, including Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Levon Helm from The Band, Keith Spring of NRBQ and Libby Titus.

"Dancing about Architecture"

Elvis Costello and Gary Sperrazza attribute the well-known phrase, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" to Martin Mull.

Artistic career

Mull has been a painter since the 1970s, and has had his work appear in group and solo exhibits since that time. He participated in the June 15, 1971 exhibit "Flush with the Walls" in the men's room of the Boston Museum of Art to protest the lack of contemporary and local art in the museum. His work often combines photorealist painting, and the pop art and collage styles. He published a book of some of his paintings, titled Paintings Drawings and Words, in 1995. One of his paintings was used on the cover for the 2008 Joyce Carol Oates novel My Sister, My Love. Another painting, owned by Steve Martin titled After Dinner Drinks (2008), was used for the cover of Love Has Come For You, an album by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.

Personal life

Twice divorced, Mull is married to singer Wendy Haas. The two have a daughter, Maggie.

In a 2010 interview on The Green Room with Paul Provenza, Mull identifies himself as an atheist, saying "I certainly don't begrudge someone else their choice to follow whatever they do, it's just for me, it doesn't make a lot of sense. I think more harm has come to this planet through organized religion, probably, than any single situation that we've invented."

Filmography

Films

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	A Futile and Stupid Gesture	Modern Doug Kenney
2011	Oliver's Ghost	Clive Rutledge
2010	Killers	Holbrook
2006	Relative Strangers	Jeffry Morton
2004	A Boyfriend for Christmas	Martin Grant
2000	Attention Shoppers	Charles
1998	Richie Rich's Christmas Wish	Richard Rich Sr.
1997	Beverly Hills Family Robinson	Doug Robinson
1996	Jingle All the Way	D.J.
1996	Edie & Pen	Johnnie Sparkle
1994	How the West Was Fun	Bart Gifooley
1993	Mrs. Doubtfire	Justin Gregory
1992	Miracle Beach	Donald Burbank
1990	Far Out Man	Dr. Leddledick
1990	Ski Patrol	Sam Marris
1988	Rented Lips	Archie Powell
1986	The Boss' Wife	Tony Dugdale
1985	O.C. and Stiggs	Pat Coletti
1985	Clue	Colonel Mustard
1985	California Girls	Elliot
1984	Bad Manners	Warren Fitzpatrick	aka: Growing Pains
1983	Private School	Pharmacy Guy	Uncredited
1983	Mr. Mom	Ron Richardson
1981	Take This Job and Shove It	Dick Ebersol
1980	My Bodyguard	Mr. Peache
1980	Serial	Harvey Holroyd
1978	FM	Eric Swan

Television

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	Veep	Bob Bradley	3 episodes
2015-2016	Life in Pieces	Gary Timpkins	2 episodes
2015	Community	George Perry	episode: "Advanced Safety Features"
2013	Dads	Crawford
2013	Psych	Highway Harry	episode: "100 Clues"
2010	'Til Death	Whitey / Mr. White	12 episodes
2008-2013	Two and a Half Men	Russell, the pharmacist	6 episodes
2008	My Boys	Dr. Clayton	episode: "Opportunity Knocks"
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Gideon Hutton
2007	The War at Home	Principal Fink
2005-2011	American Dad!	Father Donovan	10 episodes
2004-2013	Arrested Development	Gene Parmesan	4 episodes
2004-2007	Danny Phantom	Vlad Plasmius/Vlad Masters	16 episodes
2004	Reno 911!	Jim Kringle
2003	Reba	Dr. Todd	episode: "Encounters"
2002	Teamo Supremo	Governor Kevin
2002	Dexter's Laboratory	M.A.R. 10	episode: 'Lab on the Run'
2001	That '70s Show	Voice of Donna's journal	episode: 'Eric's Drunken Tattoo'
2001-2002	The Ellen Show	Himself	18 episodes
1997-2000	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	Willard Kraft	73 episodes
2000	Family Guy	Mr. Harris	episode: "If I'm Dyin', I'm Lyin'"
1998	The Simpsons	Seth	episode: "D'oh-in' in the Wind"
1993	Family Dog	Skip Binsford
1992-1993	The Larry Sanders Show	Himself
1991-1997	Roseanne	Leon Carp	46 episodes
1991	Get a Life	Sandy Connors
1990	The Golden Girls	Jimmy	episode: "Snap Out of It"
1985	The History of White People in America	Himself
1984	Domestic Life	Martin Crane
1979	Taxi	Roger Chapman	episode: "Hollywood Calling"
1977	The New Adventures of Wonder Woman	Hamlin Rule	episode: "The Pied Piper"
1977	Fernwood 2 Night	Barth Gimble
1976-1977	Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman	Garth Gimble

Discography

• Martin Mull (1972)
• "Dueling Tubas" (Single) charted at #92 on Billboard's Hot 100 (1973)
• Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture In Your Living Room! (1973)
• Normal (1974)
• In The Soop With Martin Mull (also with: Ed Wise and Les Daniels) (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 & Violins (1978)
• Near Perfect/Perfect (1979)
• Mulling it Over- A Musical Ouvre-View of Martin Mull (1998)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]