“We’re not best friends, we’re brothers. You can fight with your brother,” Cheech when talking about his relationship with comedy partner, Tommy Chong
| Net Worth: | $25 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Comedian |
| Date of Birth: | July 13, 1946 |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 1.68 m |
About Cheech Marin
As one half of the popular 1970s and 1980s comedy team Cheech & Chong, Marin was featured on a number of albums and films. Tommy Chong co-wrote and co-starred in all seven films alongside Marin, and he also directed four of them.
Having published at least one book on the subject and actively fostering the growth of Chicano art on the West Coast, Cheech is widely regarded as one of the foremost collectors of Mexican and Mexican-American art. His Mexican-American parents, Elsa, a secretary, and Oscar Marin, an LAPD officer, gave birth to him on July 13, 1946, in South Los Angeles, California. After finishing high school at Bishop Alemany, Marin enrolled in and graduated from San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge), where he majored in English and was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa.
After the breakup of Cheech & Chong in 1985, Marin went on to star as a solo actor in a variety of films, including his directorial debut Born in East L.A., as well as the comedies The Shrimp on the Barbie, Tin Cup, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He had a tiny part in Ghostbusters II, as a dockworker. In 1986, Marin wed the artist Patti Heid; the couple eventually separated after the birth of their two children. Natasha Marin, a Russian pianist and Marin’s lifelong lover, was married to him at their home in a sunset ceremony on August 8, 2009.
After a stint on the The Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace, Marin committed himself to a career in television (1992–1993). Director Robert Rodriguez has collaborated with Marin seven times: in both of the most recent Mexico films, both of the Spy Kids films, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Machete.
Nash Bridges (1996-2001) starred Don Johnson, Jaime P. Gomez, and Yasmine Bleeth as police and detective partners in San Francisco.
He has lent his voice to a number of Disney animated features, including those starring Tito the Chihuahua in 1988’s Oliver & Company, Banzai the hyena in 1994’s The Lion King, and Ramone the race car driver in 2006’s Cars and its sequels 2011’s Cars 2 and 2013’s Cars 3. In addition to his part as Pancho in The Cisco Kid (1994), he also voiced Banzai in Kingdom Hearts II. In 1992, he also triumphed in the inaugural edition of Celebrity Jeopardy!
He has been very busy in recent years with voice over work and cameo appearances in animated films. Marin played the lead part in the CBS sitcom Rob opposite Rob Schneider after appearing in a supporting role in the film Judging Amy, playing a self-made landscape designer with a comfortable income.
Summing-Up
He became well-known for his roles as Insp. Joe Dominguez, Don Johnson’s partner on Nash Bridges, and as half of the comic duo Cheech & Chong in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to Oliver & Company and The Lion King, he has voiced characters in the Cars films, Coco, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
