Cheech Marin

Cheech Marin
Marin at GalaxyCon San Jose in 2026
Born	Richard Anthony Marin (1946-07-13) July 13, 1946[1] Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	California State University, Northridge (AB)
Spouses	Darlene Morley ​ ​ (m. 1975; div. 1984)​ Patti Heid ​ ​ (m. 1986; div. 2009)​ Natasha Rubin ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	3
Occupations	Actor comedian musician activist
Comedy career
Years active	1971–present
Medium	Film stand-up television[2]
Genres	Character comedy musical comedy political satire sketch comedy stoner comedy
Subjects	Latin American culture drug culture everyday life recreational drug use

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.^[3][4]

Early life

Marin was born on July 13, 1946, in South Los Angeles, California, to Mexican parents Elsa (née Meza; 1923–2010), a secretary, and Oscar Marin (1922–2015), a police officer for the LAPD and US Navy veteran of World War II.^[5] Marin was born with a cleft lip, which was surgically repaired. He identifies as Chicano; he speaks some Spanish and often uses it in his movies.^[3][4]

Marin's nickname "Cheech" is short for "chicharrón", fried pork rind, which is a popular snack and ingredient in Latin American cuisine.^[6] 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 Spanish], 'Ay, parece un chicharrón.' Looks like a little chicharrón, you know?"^[7]

While living in South Central, Marin attended Trinity Street Elementary School.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10] 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.^[11]

Career

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., which was also his directorial debut, The Shrimp on the Barbie, Tin Cup, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Marin 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. In 2009, Marin appeared as an auto mechanic in Race to Witch Mountain. In 2017, he played the voice of a Corrections Officer in the Pixar film Coco.

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.^[12] In recent years, Marin 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, 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 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-animated 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.^[13][14]

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 contestant eliminated.

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.^[17] 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.^[18]

In January 2012, Marin was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. He was eliminated in the third week of the competition.^[19]

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry

Marin is an avid collector of Chicano art and started his collection in the 1980s. Two national touring exhibitions have featured works from his private collection. 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".^[20] In collaboration with the city of Riverside, California, and the Riverside Art Museum, Marin established The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry, in the City of Riverside, which opened June 18, 2022. Marin will be donating his collection of over 700 pieces of Chicano art, the largest collection of such art in the world.^[21] The center will provide a location for the presentation and study of Chicano art, and is expected to draw international attention.^[22][23]

Honors and accolades

• On June 20, 2025, the L.A. City Council declared June 20 Cheech Marin Day.^[24]

Other interests

Marin is an avid golfer, although he initially disliked the sport until he co-starred^[25] in the golf-themed comedy Tin Cup. Marin also practices horse archery on a special course built on his private land.

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 using 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 The Little Mermaid: An Immersive Live-to-Film Concert Experience playing the role of Chef Louis at the Hollywood Bowl.

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 Marin, on August 8, 2009, in a sunset ceremony at their home.

Marin resides in Malibu, California.^[26] He is a fan of both the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL,^[27] and the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball.^[28]

Filmography

Discography

• Cheech and Chong (1971)
• Big Bambu (1972)
• Los Cochinos (1973), won Best Comedy Recording at the 16th Annual Grammy Awards^[35]
• 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)
• My Name Is Cheech the School Bus Driver (Released October 27, 1992)
• Follow the Leader (1998)

Books

• Marin, Cheech; Hassan, John (2017). Cheech Is Not My Real Name...But Don't Call Me Chong!. New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9781455592340. OCLC 974034992.

See also

• List of celebrities who own cannabis businesses

References

External links

• Official website
• Cheech Marin at IMDb
• Cheech Marin discography at Discogs