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Richard Anthony " Cheech" Marin (born July 13, 1946) is an American comedian and actor. He 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. Marin has also voiced characters in several Disney films, including Oliver & Company, The Lion King, The Lion King 1½, the Cars franchise, Coco, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
Marin's trademark is his characters' strong Chicano accents.
Marin's nickname "Cheech" is short for "chicharrón", 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 of days old or something, my uncle came over and he looked in the crib and he said in, 'Ay, parece un chicharrón.' Looks like a little chicharrón, you know?"
While living in South Central, Marin attended Trinity Street Elementary School. In 1955, Marin and his family moved to Granada Hills, California, and he attended primary school at St. John Baptist de la Salle Catholic School. Marin then went to high school at Bishop Alemany High School, during which he started to attend folk music events at the Ash Grove on Melrose Avenue as a teenager. Marin then studied at California State University, Northridge (then known as San Fernando Valley State College), where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa. During his second semester at CSUN, Marin worked almost full-time at Nordskog Industries in Van Nuys, while enrolled more than full-time as a college student. It was also during this time that Marin was socially introduced to marijuana through his fraternity, a key feature in his later film career, in addition to becoming acquainted with Timothy Leary at a Students for a Democratic Society campus event, who would become a lifelong friend. Soon after graduating CSUN as an English major in 1968, Marin auditioned to sing for Frank Zappa's band, The Mothers of Invention. Not being offered the gig during his audition, Marin moved to Calgary, Alberta the next day in order to evade the draft during the Vietnam War, influenced by the draft evasion movement formed by David Harris. After suffering from a skiing accident, Marin recovered for six months at a Banff residence that only had one vinyl record, Love Child, by the Supremes. Included on that album was the cover song "Does Your Mama Know About Me", co-written by Tommy Chong. Marin eventually met his future comedic partner, Chong, in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Marin appeared in the Fox sitcom Married... with Children as the voice of the Bundys' 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 (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. A movie of this series was rebooted in 2021. In recent years, Marin has been active in playing supporting roles in films and performing for animated features. After appearing in a supporting role in Judging Amy, playing an independently wealthy landscape designer, he 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 (1988), Banzai the Spotted hyena in The Lion King (1994), and Ramone in Cars (2006) and its sequels Cars 2 (2011) and Cars 3 (2017). Marin also voiced Manuel in Disney's live-action-animation comedy film Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) and played Pancho in The Cisco Kid (1994), 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.Lodge 49
In 2005, Marin lent his voice to the animated children's series Dora the Explorer. Nickelodeon. IMDb, A Crown for King Bobo. Aired October 23, 2005 Retrieved May 29, 2013 He appeared in the episode "A Crown for King Juan el Bobo" as the Puerto Rican folk hero Juan Bobo. IMDb, A Crown for King Bobo Retrieved May 29, 2013.
Marin had a recurring role in the hit television series Lost, playing David Reyes, Hurley's father.
Marin 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. It is a cover of an original song by Cheech and Chong. The song is performed by a fictional singer named Alice Bowie, played by Marin, whose appearance consists of a tutu, a Disney mouse ear hat, nipple tassels, an eye mask and dress socks. This character is featured on the cover of Cheech and Chong's Wedding Album and the end of the duo's first film, Up In Smoke.
In 2009, Marin 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 finals to Michael McKean and Jane Curtin. He had previously won the first Celebrity Jeopardy! tournament in 1992.
In January 2012, Marin was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series . He was eliminated in the third week of the competition.
On April 19, 2018, Marin (as part of GLE Brands Inc) signed an agreement with Heritage Cannabis Holdings Corporation (CSE: CANN) to have exclusive rights to use cannabis and cannabis-related products utilizing the Private Stash brand throughout Canada for a period of two years, with the agreement automatically renewing for an additional year upon achieving various milestones.
In 2019, Marin was featured in playing the role of Chef Louis at the Hollywood Bowl.
Marin resides in Malibu, California. He is a fan of both the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, and the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball.
| Also director and writer |
| Direct-to-video |
| Cameo appearance |
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| Cameo |
| Direct-to-video |
| Short film |
| US version only |
| 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. |
| (Spanish-language Mexican animated film) |
| US English dub |
| A documentary covering Marin's lifelong advocacy for Chicano art, and his efforts to develop The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture and Industry. |
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