Kriti Mehrotra
Although Martin Mull primarily grew up in the small, rural town of North Ridgeville, Ohio, he knew from an early age that he was not meant for traditional work or a quiet life. However, what he didn’t expect was to become a part of the entertainment industry, and that too in such a way that he would eventually be considered an icon as an artist, actor, and comic. That’s precisely what he himself explores in Netflix’s ‘Who is Martin Mull?,’ which was filmed before he sadly passed away from a long illness on June 27, 2024 – he was 80 years old.
How Did Martin Mull Earn His Money?
Martin Mull was admittedly just a young boy when he first started drawing, making small cartoon sketches of anything and everything that interested him before perfecting them with practice. He thus grew quite confident by the time he was in high school, driving him to send samples of his original work to a card company that turned out to be very eager to buy them outright. The happy occurrence ignited his dream of establishing himself as an artist, so he enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design as soon as he could with the sole aim of honing his talent.
Martin earned a Bachelor’s degree in Painting in 1965 and a Master’s degree in Painting in 1967, stepping away from academia only when he realized he couldn’t pursue a Ph.D. in the same. He subsequently tried to make and sell his art full-time to earn a living, only to realize he needed another source of income to remain immersed in creativity and follow his passion. Since the young man had already learned to play the guitar and formed a band while in college, the next natural step for him was to give music a chance – he happily evolved into a singer-songwriter.
According to Martin’s own account in the aforementioned series, his comedy-rooted, sarcasm-filled tunes didn’t really draw much attention from record producers until 1970. That’s when he penned “A Girl Named Johnny Cash” in response to Johnny Cash’s hit single “A Boy Named Sue,” which was later recorded by Jane Morgan and peaked at #61 on the country chart. The success of this single enabled him to kick-start his own recording career, resulting in his releasing 8 humorous-satirical studio albums in the 1970s and doing countless live performances.
Martin not only performed at comedy clubs and theaters but also served as the opening act for some of the biggest names of the time, including Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Zappa, and Randy Newman. It was while he was thriving on the road that he landed the opportunity to spread his wings and get into acting, leading to his debut in the absurdist, satirical soap opera ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman’ (1976). Then came his parody talk shows, ‘Fernwood 2 Night’ (1977) and ‘America 2 Night’ (1978), his feature film debut in ‘FM’ (1978), as well as his decision to create, star in, and write a sitcom called ‘Domestic Life’ (1984).
The 1980s and 1990s were an entirely different time for Martin as he kept reaching new heights as a comedy actor, especially since he didn’t differentiate between film and television because he loved them all. Some of his biggest roles during this time were thus in both, like ‘Clue’ (1985), ‘California Girls’ (1985), ‘His & Hers’ (1990), ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ (1993), ‘Family Dog’ (1993), ‘Roseanne’ (1991-1997), ‘Richie Rich’s Christmas Wish’ (1998), and ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ (1997-2000). Moreover, he co-created as well as starred in the mockumentary titled ‘The History of White People in America’ in 1985, all the while continuing to paint for his pleasure and doing commercials for different brands.
In fact, Martin secured his first solo art exhibition in 1980 at the Molly Barnes Gallery in Los Angeles, California, following which he continued down the path and had many more exhibitions. He even compiled some of his originals and published them in a book titled ‘Paintings, Drawings, and Words’ in 1995, yet it wasn’t until the 2000s that he really started being known as a painter. That was always his dream – he confessed in Netflix’s ‘Who is Martin Mull?’ that he remained in the show business for as long as he did because it afforded him a chance to maintain his passion. He loved acting, he loved comedy, and he loved impacting others through his work, but his preferred medium was always painting.
Nevertheless, Martin also remained determined to continue entertaining for as long as he could – provided he liked the scripts – leading to some of his most iconic roles being in the 2000s and 2010s. He voiced Vlad Masters/Vlad Plasmius as the main villain in Nickelodeon’s ‘Danny Phantom’ (2004-2007), portrayed Gene Parmesan in ‘Arrested Development’ (2004, 2013, 2018-2019), and had a recurring role as a drug-using pharmacist on ‘Two and a Half Men’ (2008-2013). He even voiced Father Donovan in ‘American Dad!’ (2005-2011) and appeared in ‘Dads’ (2013-2014), ‘Veep’ (2016), ‘The Ranch’ (2016-2020), ‘The Cool Kids’ (2018-2019), and ‘Not Dead Yet’ (2023). In the end, when he passed away in 2024, he had 8 studio albums, over 100 acting credits, and countless painting sales under his belt.
Martin Mull’s Net Worth
Considering Martin’s prominence in the entertainment industry since the 1970s and the involvement of his agents, managers, and publicists, it’s no surprise that the details of his income have long been private. In other words, it’s unclear how much he got to take home for any of the projects he did – whether it be a documentary, a film, a mockumentary, or a television show. All we can assume based on his longevity, reputation, and success is that he was likely earning in the multi-millions by the 1990s/2000s, since he was starring in some very significant pieces of work. However, his base salary would obviously have been different if he were only doing a recurring part, which we estimate could have been in the range of $50,000-$60,000 per episode.
Coming to Martin’s revenue from his paintings, he admitted in Netflix’s ‘Who is Martin Mull?’ that they were not a contributor to his financial well-being until he was in his 60s in the 2000s. He revealed it was after an exhibition at Spike Gallery in New York in 2004 that things really escalated, as a series of galleries invited him to display his work and all of them sold out before opening day. Since then, one of his paintings has been used as the cover of the 2008 novel ‘My Sister, My Love,’ another is the cover of the 2013 album ‘Love Has Come for You’ by Edie Brickell & Steve Martin, and a third has ended up in the Whitney Museum in New York. Taking all these factors into account, along with Martin’s potential assets, investments, expenses, and lifestyle as a family man, we believe his net worth was in the range of $10- $15 million at the time of his death in 2024.
Read More: Bob Ross’ Net Worth At the Time of His Death
You must be logged in to post a comment.