Cheech Marin


Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marín is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer and activist, who gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s with Tommy Chong and as Don Johnson's partner, Insp. Joe Dominguez, on Nash Bridges. He has also voiced characters in several Disney films, including Oliver & Company, The Lion King, the Cars series, Coco and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
Marín's trademark is his characters' strong Chicano accents, although Marin himself is not fluent in Spanish.

Early life

Marin was born in South Los Angeles, California, to Mexican American parents Elsa, a secretary, and Oscar Marin, a police officer for the LAPD. Marin was born with a cleft lip, which was surgically repaired. According to Marin, he identifies as Chicano; he speaks some Spanish and often uses it in his movies, but he is not fluent.
Marin's nickname "Cheech" is short for "chicharron", fried pork rind, which is a popular snack and ingredient in Latin American cuisine. In a 2017 NPR interview, Marin attributed the nickname to his uncle: "I came home from the hospital, I was like a couple days old or something, my uncle came over and he looked in the crib and he said , 'Ay, parece un chicharrón.' Looks like a little chicharrón, you know?"
Marin graduated from Bishop Alemany High School and then studied English at San Fernando Valley State College, where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa and graduated in 1968. Marin then auditioned to sing for Frank Zappa in 1967, but instead moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in September to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War. Marin met his future comedic partner, Tommy Chong, in Calgary, Alberta.

Career

Comedy albums and films

As a part of the highly successful comedy duo Cheech & Chong, Marin participated in a number of comedy albums and feature film comedies in the 1970s and 1980s. Tommy Chong directed four of their films while co-writing and starring in all seven with Marin.

Later films and television work

After Cheech & Chong disbanded in 1985, Marin starred in a number of films as a solo actor, most notably Born in East L.A., The Shrimp on the Barbie, Tin Cup, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He made a cameo appearance as a dockworker in Ghostbusters II. In 2004 he made his second appearance as a policeman, as "Officer Salino" in the film adaptation of John Grisham's holiday novel "Skipping Christmas", under the title "Christmas With the Kranks", starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis. Marin appeared in the Fox sitcom Married… with Children as the voice of the Bundy’s Briard dog, Buck; he voiced the character in three episodes: Look Who's Barking, Change for a Buck and Assault and Batteries.
Marin made the transition to full-time television work when he co-starred on the short-lived The Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace, and later with Don Johnson, Jaime P. Gomez, and Yasmine Bleeth in the police show Nash Bridges, in which they played San Francisco police-detective partners. In recent years he has been active in playing supporting roles in films and performing voice overs for animated features. After appearing in a supporting role in Judging Amy, playing an independently wealthy landscape designer, Marin starred in the CBS sitcom Rob, with Rob Schneider.
Marin is a frequent collaborator of the director Robert Rodriguez, who has worked with Marin seven times; the last two installments of the Mexico trilogy, the Spy Kids trilogy, From Dusk Till Dawn and Machete. He provided his voice for several Disney animated films, most notably Tito the Chihuahua in Oliver & Company, Banzai the hyena in The Lion King, and Ramone in Cars and its sequels Cars 2 and Cars 3. He also played Pancho in The Cisco Kid, and reprised the Banzai role in the video game Kingdom Hearts II.
Cheech appears in several episodes of AMC's "Lodge 49" as El Confidente, a member of Lodge 55 in Mexico.

Children's music albums and related works

Marin has released two best-selling albums in the children's music genre, My Name is Cheech, the School Bus Driver and My Name is Cheech, The School Bus Driver "Coast to Coast". Both albums were released bilingually. In July 2007, the book Cheech the School Bus Driver was released, written by Marin, illustrated by Orlando L. Ramirez, and published by HarperCollins.
In 2005, Marin lent his voice to the animated children's series Dora the Explorer. He appeared in the episode "A Crown for King Juan el Bobo", as the Puerto Rican folk hero Juan Bobo.

Additional television appearances

In late 2006, Marin participated in Simon Cowell's Celebrity Duets, having sung with Peter Frampton, Randy Travis, Clint Black, Aaron Neville, and Al Jarreau. He was the fourth to be eliminated. In that same year, he voiced as Gaspar Gomez in '.
Marin had a recurring role in the hit television series Lost, playing David Reyes, Hurley's father.
He was a co-host for WWE Raw on March 1, 2010, with his comedy partner Tommy Chong, in Oklahoma City.
Marin also sings on the hidden track "Earache My Eye" on Korn's album Follow the Leader.
In 2009, he appeared in the Hallmark Channel movie Expecting a Miracle.
On March 18, 2010, Marin beat journalist Anderson Cooper and actress Aisha Tyler on Celebrity Jeopardy!s Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational. Cooper admitted he was "crushed" by Marin. Marin also won his semifinal round early May but lost in the May 6–7 final to Michael McKean. He had previously won the first Celebrity Jeopardy! tournament in 1992.
In January 2012, he was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series ''. He was eliminated on the third week of the competition.

Other interests

Marin is an avid collector of Chicano art. Two national touring exhibitions have featured works from his private collection. Marin started collecting Chicano art in the 1980s. He feels that it's important to "use his celebrity status to call attention to what he saw as an under-appreciated and under-represented style of art." In collaboration with the city of Riverside, California, and the Riverside Art Museum, Marin is in the process of establishing The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry, in the City of Riverside, which is due to open in 2022. Marin will be donating his collection of over 700 pieces of Chicano art, the largest collection of such art in the world. The center will provide a location for the presentation and study of Chicano art, and is expected to draw international attention.
He is an avid golfer, although he initially disliked the sport until he co-starred in the golf-themed comedy Tin Cup. He also enjoys horse archery, which he practices on a special course that he has built on his private land.
On April 19, 2018, Cheech signed an agreement with Heritage Cannabis Holdings Corporation to have exclusive rights to use cannabis and cannabis related products utilizing the Private Stash brand throughout Canada for a period of 2 years, with the agreement automatically renewing for an additional year upon achieving various milestones.

Personal life

Marin was married in 1975 to Darlene Morley, who co-produced Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers and also played minor roles in earlier Cheech & Chong films under the name Rikki Marin. The couple had one child and divorced in 1984. Marin married artist Patti Heid in 1986; they had two children and have since divorced. Marin married his longtime girlfriend, Russian pianist Natasha Rubin, on August 8, 2009, in a sunset ceremony at their home.
Marin resides in Malibu, California.
On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Cheech & Chong among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Filmography

Film

Television

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