Martin Mull attends the 2018 Fox Upfront at Wollman Rink, Central Park, on May 14, 2018 in New York City., died on Thursday, June 27. He was 80. Though Mull never reached the highest ranks of comedy stardom, he had a long and active career and received both a Grammy nomination and a Primetime Emmy nod.
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” she wrote. “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.”Mull was born in Chicago on Aug. 18, 1943. He moved with his family to North Ridgeville, Ohio, when he was two.
Mull had his first taste of success as a songwriter. He wrote the novelty song “A Girl Named Johnny Cash,” an answer song to Shel Silverstein’s “A Boy Named Sue,” which was a 1969 crossover smash forMull had a minor hit on the Billboard Hot 100 as an artist in 1973, “Dueling Tubas,” a parody of “Dueling Banjos,” which was featured in the 1972 movie. Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell’s instrumental smash “Dueling Banjos” logged four weeks at No. 2; “Dueling Tubas” reached No. 92.
Mull also released a series of comedy albums in the ’70s. His self-titled debut album, released by Capricorn in 1972, featured such well-known musicians as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Levon Helm from The Band, Keith Spring from NRBQ and Libby Titus.. Both of Mull’s Billboard 200 albums were released on ABC Records. He also bubbled under the chart with albums released on Capricorn and Elektra.
In the early-to-mid 1970s, before his career as an actor really took off, Mull was mostly known as a musical comedian, performing satirical and humorous songs. He opened in concert for such top music stars as Randy Newman and Sandy Denny, Frank Zappa, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen.. His sexual orientation was treated matter-of-factly. That way of treating it was groundbreaking on TV at the time, when gay characters rarely appeared at all.