Martin Mull

Offbeat funnyman Martin Mull was born in Chicago Illinois the oldest of three children and raised in Ohio The blondmaned blueeyed comedian with the sad droopy mustache first came in contact with the arts by honing in on his innate talents as a painter In order to pay his art school tuition he started organizing bands At around the same time he discovered that standup comedy was another way to allow his creative juices to flow Martins early recognition as a humorist led to a recording contract and over the years he would be Grammynominated several times for a number of eccentric comedy albums His gimmick and allure came in the form of a dry humorless delivery and a bland highly conservativelooking demeanor which masked a sly witty and ultrahip philosophy Gaining popularity in the 1970s he finally broke into TV with the cult soap opera parody Mary Hartman Mary Hartman 1976 in which he played Garth Gimble a volatile wife abuser whose comeuppance occurred in the form of an aluminum Christmas tree impaled in his home closet Martin was so popular on the show that he was resurrected in the spinoff series Fernwood 2 Night 1977 as twin brother Barth Gimble who was a cohost of the towns television program along with Fred Willards Jerry Hubbard character After this peak Martin became a soughtafter guest on the talk show circuit not to mention variety specials and TV movies He tried his hand at producing and starring in his own sitcom Domestic Life 1984 but the series failed He also added his special brand of merriment to films over the years some of them being decent such as FM 1978 Serial 1980 Mr Mom 1983 and Clue 1985 in the role of the tweedylooking Colonel Mustard while most have been either formula schtick or just plain drivel as in Take This Job and Shove It 1981 Rented Lips 1988 which he produced and wrote Cutting Class 1989 Far Out Man 1990 with Cheech Chong and Mr Write 1994 Martins first passion has always been art and the distinguished multimedia artists work has been showcased in galleries throughout the world He also authored the book Painting Drawing and World which is a compilation of ten years of his work Mull is married to a composer and musician Wendy and they have a daughter IMDb Mini Biography By Gary Brumburgh