Cheech Marin Biography

Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin (born July 13, 1946) is a Mexican American comedian, actor, voice actor and writer 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 productions, including Oliver and Company, The Lion King, It's Tough to be a Bug!, Cars, Cars 2 and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Marin's trademark is his characters' strong Mexican accent; this is part of a comic persona, rather than a natural accent since Marin was born and raised in the United States, despite being of Mexican descent.

Early life

Marin was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Elsa (née Meza), a secretary, and Oscar Marin, a policeman in the LAPD. Marin was born with a cleft lip, which has long since been repaired. Although he speaks Spanish and uses it in some of his movies, he is not particularly fluent.

Marin's nickname "Cheech" is short for "chicharron", a fried pork skin that is a popular snack in Mexican cuisine and a favorite of marijuana smokers afflicted with "the munchies", and the nickname's alliteration with Chong's surname made "Cheech and Chong" an obvious choice for the name of the duo. The name of this character gave rise to the popular term "cheeched", meaning "under the influence of marijuana, usually at a relatively high dose".

Marin graduated from Bishop Alemany High School, located in California's San Fernando Valley, as well as from San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge), where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa. Marin auditioned to sing for Frank Zappa in 1967, but moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in September of that year to avoid the U.S. draft during the height of the Vietnam War. In Vancouver, Marin met his future comedic partner Tommy Chong.

Career

Comedy albums and films

See Cheech & Chong for more information 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 Cheech Marin.

Later films and television work

After he and Tommy Chong went their separate ways in 1985, Marin starred in a number of films as a solo actor, most notably Born in East L.A., Tin Cup, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

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 (1992"1993), and later with Don Johnson, Jaime P. Gomez and Yasmine Bleeth in the police show Nash Bridges (1996"2001), 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 favorite of 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 in Oliver & Company (1988), Banzai in The Lion King (1994) and Ramone in Cars (2006) and Cars 2 (2011). He also reprised the Banzai role in Kingdom Hearts II. He made a small appearance as a dockworker in the movie Ghostbusters 2.

Children's music albums

Marin has released two best-selling albums in the children's music genre, My Name is Cheech, the School Bus Driver (1992) and My Name is Cheech, The School Bus Driver "Coast to Coast" (1997). Both albums were released bilingually. In July 2007, Cheech Marin added children's book author to his list of accomplishments with the release of Cheech the School Bus Driver, illustrated by Orlando L. Ramirez (Published by HarperCollins).

In 2005, Marin appeared on Nickelodeon in the Dora the Explorer series. The episode was titled A Crown for King Bobo, and Juan Bobo was voiced by Marin.

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 Scarface: The World Is Yours.

In recent years, Marin has 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.

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 Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. 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.

He is also an avid golfer, although he initially disliked the sport until he co-starred in Tin Cup.

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 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 California.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Up in Smoke	Pedro de Pacas
1980	Cheech & Chong's Next Movie	Cheech/Dwayne "Red" Mendoza
1981	Nice Dreams	Cheech
1982	Things Are Tough All Over	Cheech/Mr.Slyman/Narrator
1983	Still Smokin'	Cheech
	Yellowbeard	El Segundo
1984	Cannonball Run II	Tire Store Employee
	Cheech & Chong's The Corsican Brothers	Corsican Brother
1985	Get Out of My Room	Cheech/Ian Rotten
	After Hours	Neil
1986	Charlie Barnett's Tems of Enrollment	Elvis & Fan
	Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation	Tito
Echo Park	Sid
1987	Born in East L.A.	Rudy
	Fatal Beauty	Bartender
1988	Mickey's 60th Birthday	Disney Janitor
	Oliver & Company	Tito the Chihuahua	Voice
1989	Ghostbusters II	Dock Supervisor
	Rude Awakening	Jesus Monteya
	Troop Beverly Hills	cameo
1990	Far Out Man	Cheech
	The Shrimp on the Barbie	Carlos
1992	Ferngully: The Last Rainforest	Stump	Voice
1994	Charlie's Ghost Story	Coronado
	The Magic of the Golden Bear: Goldy III	Master Borgia
	A Million to Juan	Shell Shock
	The Lion King	Banzai the Hyena	Voice
1995	Desperado	Short Bartender
1996	Blazing Dragons		Voice
	From Dusk Till Dawn	Border Guard/Chet Pussy/Carlos
	The Great White Hype	Julio Escobar
	Tin Cup	Romeo Posar
1998	Paulie	Ignacio
	It's Tough to be a Bug!		Attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom
1999	The Nuttiest Nutcracker	Mac	Voice
2000	See You in My Dreams	Estaban
2000	Luminarias	Jesus
2000	Picking Up the Pieces	Mayor Machado
2001	Spy Kids	Felix Gumm
2002	Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams	Felix Gumm
2002	Pinocchio	The Fox	Voice
2003	The Ortegas	Henny Ortega
2003	Masked and Anonymous	Prospero
2003	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over	Felix Gumm
2003	Once Upon a Time in Mexico	Belini
2003	Good Boy!	The Henchmen	Voice
2004	The Lion King 1½	Banzai the Hyena	Voice
2004	Christmas with the Kranks	Officer Salino
2005	Sian Ka'an		Voice
2005	Fall Down a School	Erick Matthew, 202, 26, 57, 211 Bus Motorists	Voice
2005	Judging Amy	Ignacio Messina
2005	Underclassman	Captain Victor Delgado
2005	Kingdom Hearts II	Banzai the Hyena	Voice; video-game
2006	Cars	Ramone	Voice
2006	Scarface: The World is Yours	Gaspar Gomez
2006	Mater and the Ghostlight	Ramone	Voice
2007	The Union: The Business Behind Getting High	Himself
2008	Beverly Hills Chihuahua	Manuel	Voice
2009	Expecting a Miracle	Father Arturo	Television film
2009	Race to Witch Mountain	Auto Mechanic
2010	The Perfect Game	Padre Esteban
2010	Tales from Earthsea	Hare	Voice
2010	Machete	Padre	Cheech also makes an appearance as the Padre in the (then) fictitious Machete trailer for the 2007 Grindhouse double feature. The trailer appears in the DVD for the Planet Terror portion of Grindhouse.
2011	Cars 2	Ramone	Voice
2011	Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil	Mad Hog	Voice
2012	El Santos vs. La Tetona Mendoza	Narrator, El Charro	Voice (Spanish-language Mexican animated film)
2013	Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie	Cheech	Voice
2013	Seven Psychopaths	The Dog, Erick Matthew	Voice

Television credits

• Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme (TV) (1990) ... Carnival Barkera
• Great Performances (TV) ... El Cosmico (1 episode, 1991)
• Ring of the Musketeers (TV)(1992) .... Burt Aramis
• The Golden Palace (TV)...Chuy Castillos (24 episodes, 1992"1993)
• Tales from the Crypt (TV)... Dr. Beneloy (1 episode, 1993)
• The Cisco Kid (TV)(1994) ... Pancho
• Married with Children (3 episodes, 1991"1994)...Buck's Voice
• Dream On (1994)... Waiter (1 episode, 1994)
• Santo Bugito (1995) TV Series .... Lencho the Flea (unknown episodes)
• The Courtyard (TV) (1995)... Angel Steiner
• Latino Laugh Festival (TV) (1996)... Host
• Happily Ever After: Fairytales For Every Child (TV) Character- "Hansel and Gretel"
• Tracey Takes On... (1996"1998).... Carlos (starred in only 2 episodes)
• Funny Flubs & Screw-Ups V (TV) (2000)...Host
• The 26th Annual People's Choice Awards (TV) (2000)...Host
• Resurrection Blvd. (TV) (2000)...as Hector Archuletta
• South Park (TV) (2000)...voiced as Carlos Ramirez (voiced in 1 episode \"Cherokee Hair Tampons\")
• Nash Bridges (TV) (2001)...as Inspector Joe Dominguez (1996"2001)
• Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales (TV) (2003)...as Himself
• George Lopez (TV) (2003)...as Lalo (Starred in the episode titled Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Honey)
• Storm Hawks (2007) ...Cyclonian Pilot
• Lost (TV) (2007"2009)...as David Reyes (Hurley's Dad in the episodes Tricia Tanaka Is Dead, There's no Place Like Home and The Lie)
• Mind of Mencia (2008)...Gay man's father
• Grey's Anatomy (2008)...Otis (episode "Where the Wild Things Are")
• MADtv (2009) Himself
• WWE Raw (TV) (2010)...as Himself (Guest Host)
• Off the Map (TV) (2011)...as Papa
• The Simpsons (2011)...as Himself (Guest voice)
• Lopez Tonight (TV) (2011)...as Himself, George's celebrity father
• Psych (2012)...as Deacon Jones
• Rob (2012)...as Fernando
• Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off (2012)...as Himself (celebrity contestant)

Cheech and Chong comedy albums

• Cheech and Chong (1971)
• Big Bambu (1972)
• Los Cochinos (1973)
• Cheech & Chong's Wedding Album (1974)
• Sleeping Beauty (1976)
• Up In Smoke (1978)
• Let's Make a New Dope Deal (1980)
• Get Out Of My Room (1985)