Hint: the arrested real estate actor was 80 years old

Martin Mull, a musician and comic actor who got his start on the 1970s TV series “Fernwood Tonight” and went on to star as Colonel Mustard on “Clue” and on “Arrested Development” and “Roseanne,” died Thursday. He was 80 years old.

His daughter Maggie announced his death on Instagram, writing: “It is with a broken heart that I announce that my father passed away at home on June 27 after a brave battle with a long illness. He was known for excelling in every possible creative field, as well as for making Red Roof Inn commercials. He thought the joke was funny. He never stopped being funny. My dad will be greatly missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and colleagues, by his fellow artists, comedians and musicians, and – as a testament to his special person – by many, many dogs. I loved him very much.”

Mull was nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for his guest role as political assistant Bob Bradley on Veep. He has recently guest starred on The Afterparty, Not Dead Yet and Grace and Frankie.

In 2015, he guest-starred on the NBC comedy “Community” as George Perry, father of Gillian Jacobs’ Britta Perry, and on the CBS comedy “Life in Pieces.”

Mull had a recurring role from 2008 to 2013 on Two and a Half Men as Russell, a pharmacist who illegally uses and sells drugs and was present at Charlie’s funeral in the ninth season premiere. The actor also appeared on Arrested Development as a rather incompetent private investigator named Gene Parmesan, who has a habit of appearing in silly disguises.

Mull also regularly appeared on Seth MacFarlane’s single-season Fox comedy “Dads,” which starred Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as the owners of a video game company in 2013-2014, playing the father of Ribisi’s character.

In 2008, he guest-starred in the series “Law & Order: Special Section” as Dr. Gideon Hutton, whose denial of AIDS led to his conviction for willful neglect in connection with the deaths of several people.

Mull’s film and television career actually began with his role as talk show host Barth Gimble in the maliciously satirical television series “Fernwood Tonight” and “America 2-night” created by Norman Lear in 1977 and 1978, in which he played Fred Willard the role of Jerry Hubbard’s dim-witted sidekick. These shows were spin-offs of the groundbreaking “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”

Willard and Mull starred again in the 1985 HBO mockumentary A History of White People in America. Mull played Roseanne’s gay boss, Leon Carp, on her 1991–97 ABC series of the same name, and in 1995 he reunited with Willard in an episode of the series in which the two performed at one of the first gay weddings on television.

In recent years, he has appeared occasionally in films, but usually in small supporting roles.

On Ellen De Generes’ sitcom The Ellen Show (not to be confused with the earlier Ellen), which aired for 18 episodes on CBS in 2001-02, Mull was a series regular as Ed Munn. From 1997 to 2000, he appeared on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch as Principal Willard Kraft.

From 1998 to 2004, Mull regularly appeared on the game show “Hollywood Squares” in a series of 425 episodes, many of which featured a role in the central square.

Martin Eugene Mull was born in Chicago, his mother was an actress and director, and his father was a carpenter. The family moved to North Ridgeville, Ohio when he was 2 years old; when he was 15, they moved to New Canaan, Connecticut. He studied painting and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in painting.

Mull first entered show business not as an actor or comedian but as a songwriter, writing Jane Morgan’s 1970 country single “A Girl Named Johnny Cash,” which reached No. 61 on the Billboard country charts. He began his own recording career shortly thereafter.

He composed the theme song for the 1970 series “The 51st State” and was the musical producer for the 1971 movie “Jump.”

Throughout the 1970s, and particularly 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. In the early 1970s, he opened for Randy Newman, Frank Zappa, and Bruce Springsteen at various live concerts.

His self-titled debut album, released in 1972, featured famous musicians including Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Levon Helm of the Band, Keith Spring of NRBQ and Libby Titus. Other albums include 1974’s Normal, Days of Wine and Neuroses (1975), No Hits, Four Errors: The Best of Martin Mull (1977), Sex and Violins (1978) and I ‘m Everyone I’ve Ever Loved.’ According to a profile on the AV Club website, Mull scored a “Billboard Hot 100 hit with the single ‘Dueling Tubas.’

In an interview with AV Club, Mull was asked how the painter got into acting, to which he replied: “And it’s still painting. I was painting all the time. This was all a way of trying to get paint on my table. (Laughter.) You know, every painter I know has a full-time job. He either teaches art at some university or drives a taxi or something. And I’ve just been lucky to get a full-time job that’s amazing and a lot of fun and buys a lot of paint. But how did I start doing this?”

“As far as acting goes, I had a musical career on the road for about 17 years, I had bands and all that, and it came down to my wife and I playing big rooms in Vegas, and you couldn’t expect more. There were limousines and apartments and all that stuff. But I had had enough of it. So I thought I’d try my hand at writing for television. I had the opportunity to interview Norman Lear, and I was a huge fan of “Mary Hartman.” I went in and talked to him for, oh, I would say a good hour. We had a great conversation. And then he said, “We don’t need any writers.” It was nice to meet you. See you.’ And six months later I got the call to come in and read for the part.”

After gaining notoriety as Barth Gimble, he landed one of the few leading roles of his career in the 1980 comedy “Serial,” a satire of life in Marin County that stars Mull’s Harvey Holyroyd, as the blog put it Technicolor Dreams, “as a self-important audience substitute, verbally questioning every aspect of the free-spirited lifestyle of Marin County residents.”

Also in 1980, Mull had a supporting role in Tony Bill’s “My Bodyguard” as Chris Makepeace’s hotel manager father, Clifford. In the movie “Mr. Mom” (1983) Michael Keaton was a housewife father, Teri Garr was a working mother, and Martin Mull “is a devious advertising agency CEO who plans to bring Garr into his life,” in the words of Roger Ebert.

In 1984, Steve Martin and Martin Mull teamed up to create the sitcom “Domestic Life”, in which Mull played the role of a Seattle television commentator whose teenage son runs a very profitable business out of his bedroom and makes loans to his parents. However, the CBS series only had 10 episodes.

The actor was part of the ensemble in Robert Altman’s satirical, little-known take on high school life, “O.C. and Stiggs” (1985). That same year, Mull also played Colonel Mustard in “Clue,” an adaptation of the board game.

He starred in and wrote the screenplay for another little-known film, directed by Robert Downey Sr. “The Hired Mouth” (1988).

Mull again sought regular television work as a star opposite Stephanie Faracy in the NBC sitcom His & Hers (1990), which closed after 13 episodes, and in The Jackie Thomas Show (1992), starring Tom Arnold, which left ABC after 18 episodes.

The actor began his voice-over work in 1993 with Family Dog, an early Brad Bird series in which he provided lead roles.

In 1992–93, Mull guest-starred in two episodes of Garry Shandling’s The Larry Sanders Show.

The actor played a supporting role in Robin Williams’ signature film “Mrs. Doubts.

Trained as a painter, Mull has been practicing his art since the 1970s, and his work has appeared in both group and solo exhibitions. On June 15, 1971, he attended the “Flush with the Walls” exhibition in the men’s room of the Boston Museum of Art to protest the dearth of contemporary and local art at the museum.

In 1995, a book containing reproductions of some of his paintings, “Paintings, Drawings and Words”, was published. One of his paintings was featured on the cover of Joyce Carol Oates’s 2008 novel “My Sister, My Love.” Another painting, After Dinner Drinks (2008), owned by Steve Martin, was used on the cover of the album “Love Has Come for You” by Martin and Edie Brickell. In the first decade of the 21st century, he had exhibitions in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Las Vegas, among others.