Martin Mull: Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Arrested Development star dead at 80

American actor and comic Martin Mull, recognized for his work on the TV sitcoms Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Roseanne, has died at age 80.

Mull, who additionally starred within the 1985 comedy movie Clue, died on Thursday at his house after a “valiant combat in opposition to a protracted sickness”, his daughter, Maggie Mull, mentioned on social media.

In a tribute on Instagram, Ms Mull wrote that her father “was recognized for excelling at each inventive self-discipline possible and for doing Purple Roof Inn commercials”.

“He would discover that joke humorous,” she added. “He was by no means not humorous.”

Mull’s first notable position was in 1976, enjoying Garth Gimble on the cleaning soap opera spoof Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which led to 2 extra spin-off roles, together with within the collection Fernwood 2 Night time.

He then landed the position of military officer Colonel Mustard within the black-comedy movie Clue, impressed by the board recreation of the identical identify.

Round that point, he additionally started voicing the Purple Roof Inn commercials that his daughter talked about in her tribute.

Tv aficionados of the Nineteen Nineties will recognise Mull from his work on Roseanne, the place he performed the titular character’s boss Leon Carp, or in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the place he performed Principal Willard Kraft.

Mull additionally appeared on the critically acclaimed satirical sitcom Arrested Growth, enjoying hapless non-public detective Gene Parmesan.

He visitor starred in quite a few different well-known tv reveals, together with The Simpsons, Household Man, Regulation and Order: Particular Victims Unit, The Golden Ladies and Two and a Half Males.

Mull was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Excellent Visitor Actor in a Comedy Sequence for a four-episode look he made on HBO’s political satire Veep in 2016.

Born in Chicago to an actress and a carpenter, Mull started his present enterprise profession as a songwriter and have become generally known as a musical comic. He opened for Frank Zappa and Bruce Springsteen at quite a few reside gigs within the early Nineteen Seventies.

He additionally studied portray and graduated in 1965 from the Rhode Island College of Design with a Bachelor of Fantastic Arts.

In a 2013 interview with the A.V. Membership, he mentioned of his performing profession that “each painter I do know has a day job. They’re both instructing artwork at some faculty or driving a cab”.

“I simply occurred to luck right into a day job that’s extraordinary and a whole lot of enjoyable and buys a whole lot of paint,” he mentioned.

In addition to his daughter, Maggie, a TV author, he leaves his spouse, Wendy Haas, an actor and composer whom he wed in 1982.