Cheech Marin
1 min read
Cheech Marin (born Richard Anthony Marin on July 13, 1946, in Los Angeles, California) is an American actor, comedian, and writer whose career began with the counterculture comedy duo Cheech and Chong, formed with Tommy Chong in the early 1970s. Their debut album (1971) and follow-up Big Bambu (1972) made them one of the best-selling comedy acts of their era, and their 1978 film Up in Smoke became a long-running cult hit.
Marin appeared in Ghostbusters II (1989) as the Dock Supervisor, the port official who witnesses the ghost ship of the RMS Titanic arrive at Pier 34 on December 30 and calls the police to report it. The dock scene was filmed on April 27, 1989.
After parting ways with Tommy Chong in 1985, Marin built a substantial solo career. He supplied the voice of Banzai the hyena in Disney's The Lion King (1994), starred opposite Don Johnson in the TV series Nash Bridges (1996-2001), appeared in Robert Rodriguez's Desperado (1995) and From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), and voiced Ramone in Pixar's Cars (2006) and its sequels. Marin is also a prominent collector and advocate of Chicano art; the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture and Industry opened in Riverside, California in 2022.