Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Arrested Development star dead at 80

American actor and comic Martin Mull, identified 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 residence after a “valiant struggle in opposition to an extended sickness”, his daughter, Maggie Mull, mentioned on social media.

In a tribute on Instagram, Ms Mull wrote that her father “was identified for excelling at each artistic 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 function was in 1976, taking part in Garth Gimble on the cleaning soap opera spoof Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which led to 2 extra spin-off roles, together with within the sequence Fernwood 2 Evening.

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

Round that point, he additionally started voicing the Purple Roof Inn ads 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 Improvement, taking part in hapless non-public detective Gene Parmesan.

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

Mull was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Excellent Visitor Actor in a Comedy Collection 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 stay gigs within the early Seventies.

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

In a 2013 interview with the A.V. Membership, he mentioned of his appearing 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 lots of enjoyable and buys lots 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.