Marin appeared in the Fox sitcom Married. 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. He made a cameo appearance as a dockworker in Ghostbusters II. Tommy Chong directed four of their films while co-writing and starring in all seven with Marin.Īfter 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.
Career Comedy albums and films Īs 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. Marin met his future comedic partner, Tommy Chong, in Calgary, Alberta. Marin then auditioned to sing for Frank Zappa in 1967, but instead moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in September to evade the draft during the Vietnam War. Marin graduated from Bishop Alemany High School and then studied English at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge), where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa and graduated in 1968. 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, 'Ay, parece un chicharrón.' Looks like a little chicharrón, you know?" Marin's nickname "Cheech" is short for " chicharron", fried pork rind, which is a popular snack and ingredient in Latin American cuisine. According to Marin, he identifies as Chicano he speaks some Spanish and often uses it in his movies, but he is not fluent. Marin was born with a cleft lip, which was surgically repaired.
Marin was born on Jin South Los Angeles, California, to Mexican American parents Elsa (née Meza), a secretary, and Oscar Marin, a police officer for the LAPD. 3 The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry.2.3 Children's music albums and related works.