Music Mull broke into show business as a songwriter, penning
Jane Morgan's 1970 country single, "A Girl Named Johnny Cash", which peaked at No. 61 on
Billboards country charts. Shortly thereafter, he began his own recording career. , a
Fox sitcom, September 2018 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. Rather than use the stage trappings of most musical acts, Mull decorated his stage with comfortable
thrift store furniture. 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,
Billy Joel in
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1974; 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 noteworthy musicians including
Ramblin' Jack Elliott,
Levon Helm from
The Band, Keith Spring of
NRBQ, Jack Bone, and
Libby Titus.
Elvis Costello and Gary Sperrazza attribute the remark "
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" to Martin Mull.
Acting Mull's first well-known acting role was as Garth Gimble in the 1976 television nighttime
absurdist soap opera
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. That led to work in the spin-off talk show parodies
Fernwood 2 Night (1977) and
America 2 Night (1978), in which he played talk show host Barth Gimble (Garth's twin brother), opposite
Fred Willard, as sidekick and announcer Jerry Hubbard. Mull appeared as the neurotic, libidinous
disc jockey Eric Swan in the 1978 movie
FM, his feature film debut. In 1979, Mull appeared in the
Taxi episode
Hollywood Calling. He created, wrote, and starred in the short-lived 1984
CBS sitcom
Domestic Life, with
Megan Follows playing his teenaged daughter. During the 1980s, Mull played supporting roles in the films
Mr. Mom (1983) and
Clue (1985), and had a rare lead role in
Serial (1980). In 1985, he co-created and starred in
The History of White People in America—the
Associated Press said the
mockumentary was "what many thought was his best work". He also starred in a series of commercials for
Michelob and
Pizza Hut, and in a series of television and radio commercials for
Red Roof Inn with Willard. He appeared in the 1986
Pecos Bill episode of the
Shelley Duvall TV series
Tall Tales & Legends. In a 1990 episode of
The Golden Girls, he played a
hippie who was afraid of the outside world. Mull had a long-running role from 1991 to 1997 as Leon Carp, Roseanne Conner's gay boss (and later business partner) on the TV series
Roseanne. From 1997 to 2000, he played Willard Kraft on the show
Sabrina the Teenage Witch; he was
Sabrina Spellman's high school's vice-principal in seasons 2 and 3 and her high school's principal in season 4. Mull 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. He did the voice of
Vlad Masters/
Vlad Plasmius, the main villain in
Danny Phantom from 2004 to 2007. In late 2004 and in 2013's
Netflix-produced fourth season of
Arrested Development, Mull portrayed Gene Parmesan, a
private investigator. From 2008 to 2013, he had a recurring role on the show
Two and a Half Men as Russell, a humorous drug-using and drug-selling pharmacist. During 2008 and 2009, Mull guest starred in two episodes of the television series
Gary Unmarried, as Allison's father. In 2015, he appeared in two episodes of the TV series
Community as George Perry, the father of
Britta Perry. He also starred in the
Fox television sitcom
Dads (2013-14),
''I'm Sorry (2017-18), and
The Cool Kids (2018-19), the latter with David Alan Grier, Vicki Lawrence, and Leslie Jordan. In 2016, Mull appeared as guest star in the satirical TV series Veep, a role that earned him an Emmy nomination. His later credits include The Ranch, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Bob's Burgers''.
Art Mull began painting in the 1970s, and his work has appeared in group and solo exhibits. He participated in the June 15, 1971 exhibit "Flush with the Walls" in the men's room of the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts to protest the lack of contemporary and local art in the museum. His first serious one-person exhibition was held in 1980 at the Molly Barnes Gallery in
Los Angeles and was credited by artist
Mark Kostabi as instrumental in launching his own career because of "Mull's simultaneous embrace of humor and gravitas in visual art." His work often combined
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 of his titled
After Dinner Drinks (2008), which is owned by
Steve Martin, was used for the cover of
Love Has Come for You, an album by Martin and
Edie Brickell. ==Personal life and death==