Whether you know him from his lengthy tenure as one half of the comedy duo Cheech & Chong,
or as a solo performer and actor, Cheech Marin has been a constant presence in the pop culture
scene since he started making waves over four decades ago.
This is the untold truth of Cheech Marin.
Born with a cleft lip
As an actor and musician, Cheech Marin has made his name with his voice and face.
As such, some might find it quite surprising that he was born with a cleft lip.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines cleft lip and its sister condition,
cleft palate, as "birth defects that occur when a baby's lip or mouth do not form properly
during pregnancy."
This can leave a fissure on the person's upper lip or palate, which can create communication
and eating problems unless it's repaired.
Fortunately, Marin's cleft was fixed, and judging by the lack of noticeable scarring
in his upper lip, it's probably safe to assume that the operation was quite successful.
As an interesting coincidence, actor Stacy Keach Marin's co-star in Cheech & Chong films
Up in Smoke and Nice Dreams – went through a similar ordeal as a child.
Keach has told the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association that he was also born with a cleft.
In his case, it required four surgeries to fix.
"Cheech" is a very strange moniker, so while the world has gotten used to the name Cheech
Marin, it's probably not a huge surprise that it isn't the entertainer's given name.
In a 2017 interview with NPR, he revealed that he received the curious call sign very
early on, courtesy of his uncle.
Marin told NPR,
"Cheech is my nickname.
It always has been, in my family short for chicharrón.
You know, pork rinds.
When I came home from the hospital, I was like a couple days old or something, my uncle
came over and he looked in the crib and he said he looks like a little chicharrón, you
know?"
While that may seem like a harsh name to impose on a baby, it turned out to mesh very well
with his future comedy partner, Tommy Chong.
Then again, Marin might just harbor a tiny bit of unspoken resentment toward his lifelong
nickname, considering the fact that he named his memoir Cheech Is Not My Real Name But
Don't Call Me Chong.
Oh, and in case you're curious, Marin's actual first name is Richard.
The strong accent Cheech Marin employs in his roles may make some assume that he's bilingual,
or possibly even speaking English as a second language.
However, in an interview with The Bend Mag, he noted that the Spanish language actually
isn't a massive part of his toolkit.
He told the magazine,
"I grew up in neighborhoods where there weren't very many Mexicans.
And so I was always 'the Mexican' and I always thought, 'well I am not Mexican.
I have never even been to Mexico and I don't speak Spanish.'"
The term "Chicano" started out as a racial slur, but the Chicano Movement of the 1960s
saw the Mexican-American community reclaim the term for itself.
"Chicano is a voluntary category.
You have to declare yourself a Chicano in order to be one."
Marin identifies strongly with Chicano culture, but as he's stated in a blog post on his website,
he remained an exclusive English speaker even though many of his relatives spoke Spanish
well.
Despite this, Marin has made it clear that he understands and appreciates the importance
of languages, and has in fact studied Spanish as an adult.
Still, considering that he was in his 70s during the Bend Mag interview, he seems to
largely consider himself a non-speaker.
Even people who are familiar with Cheech Marin's work might not be aware that he was once close
to becoming a very different counterculture icon.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the comedian once attempted to join Frank Zappa and his
Mothers of Invention.
The year was 1968, and Zappa was auditioning singers for his peculiar doo-wop project,
Cruising with Ruben & The Jets.
Along came Marin, who later recalled the experience in the liner notes of Zappa compilation album
Greasy Love Songs.
Marin wrote,
"There was already an audition going on in the living room, but it was for guitar players.
Don Van Vliet, otherwise known as Captain Beefheart, was running through guitar players
for his band.
Frank nodded to me and indicated that I should chill.
He was sooo cool.
He was Frank Zappa."
The evidently star-struck Marin hung on until Beefheart wrapped up, and when his turn came,
he actually managed to impress Zappa or, at least, he thinks he did.
Marin wrote,
"I started to sing.
One of the consistent things I can do as a singer is stay on key.
This seemed to please Mr. Zappa because he nodded in time."
Unfortunately for young Marin, Zappa ultimately wasn't quite excited enough to hire him, and
the two men moved on to create their separate legacies.
It's difficult to talk about Cheech Marin's legacy without mentioning Tommy Chong, his
longtime partner in comedy.
As the New York Post tells us, Cheech & Chong met when the Los Angeleno Marin moved to Chong's
native Canada in order to avoid the Vietnam War.
Chong had a fondness for improvisational comedy, and since both men were musical and funny,
they decided to team up.
Though their famous stoner characters were technically called Pedro and Man, the pair
remains best known as simply Cheech & Chong.
The two counter-culture icons went on to make numerous music albums and stoner comedies,
and as Chong told the Calgary Herald in 2016, they blazed the trail for many future entertainment
icons.
As such, he says they command a lot of respect in the industry.
Chong told the newspaper,
"More than anything, I see the influence in the movie industry.
I know we influenced the hell out of Quentin Tarantino.
He even admits it, talking about watching Cheech & Chong movies over and over again.
Cheech really created the Chicano persona you know, George Lopez and [Paul] Rodriguez
and all those guys."
Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong seemed like the world's most laid-back comedy duo, but in
reality, the two started drifting apart as the years went by.
The pair met near the end of the 1960s, and steadily built their act until their movies
started making waves a decade later.
Unfortunately, their relationship soured over time, and in 1987 Marin broke out on his own.
In an interview with the New York Post, Marin makes it clear that as far as he's concerned,
the rift between the pair was largely caused by the way Chong let the fame go in his head,
became too controlling, and was unable to evolve beyond his "Man" character.
This, Marin said, led to Chong trying to keep him back, as well.
Marin told the Post,
"He just couldn't do it, but he still wanted to cling onto me and control me, and that
wasn't working."
"We had always directed and written together, and at some point he decided he wanted to
be the director and dictate everything that was going to happen."
Regardless of the reasons the pair originally strayed apart, they reunited in 2008 and started
touring again.
Though they had their difficulties at first, at least the worst of their old troubles seem
to be water under the bridge.
Cheech Marin left Tommy Chong in 1987 to embark on what has turned out to be a truly illustrious
solo entertainment career.
As Marin himself put it, the film he directed, wrote and starred in that year, Born in East
L.A., essentially "kicked off the rest of [his] life."
Apart from the expected comedy appearances, he's also appeared in plenty of serious projects.
In fact, one of his most famous post-Cheech & Chong roles was in the CBS police procedural
Nash Bridges, in which he starred opposite Don Johnson for a cool six seasons.
Apart from acting in a multitude of roles, Marin has also capitalized on his highly recognizable
voice, with a successful voice-acting career.
"I saw that on a movie once!"
As fans of Robert Rodriguez movies know, if you put on one of the director's films you
have a fairly decent chance to spot Cheech Martin before long.
They're super-frequent collaborators and while you can spot the comedian in the director's
family-friendly Spy Kids franchise, he also appears in much of Rodriguez's bloodier fare,
such as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, and Machete.
As Marin has told the Latin Post, he's witnessed Rodriguez's rise to the higher plateaus of
Hollywood from the director's humble student film beginnings, and has relished the experience.
He was initially wary of joining Rodriguez's movies, thinking that his goofy artistic reputation
wouldn't match the director's splatter aesthetic.
However, Rodriguez's Spy Kids side won the actor over.
Rodriguez and Marin are more than just common collaborators, they're actually great friends
in real life.
Marin told the Latin Post,
"Robert and I were friends from the beginning.
He would come over the house with his wife and stay with me, he's like family.
He knew that he could always call on me if he needed this or that.
We have this direct communication.
He's looking through the lens, the viewfinder and he's talking to me."
Should one be in the habit of assuming that comedians are the same as their best-known
characters, it could come as quite a surprise that Cheech Marin is a patron of the arts.
In fact, he's quite a bit more than just a casual patron.
Based in the Riverside Art Museum in California, the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture
& Industry is the home base of Marin's art collection, which the center says is nothing
more or less than, quote, "the finest private collection of Chicano art in the United States."
Per the San Diego Union Tribune, Marin also has a number of art books to his name, and
he's very active in the art community.
Though many of his pieces are displayed in "The Cheech," parts of the collection are
often loaned to other museums and galleries.
In an interview with NPR, Marin noted that Chicano art and his comedy career have quite
a bit in common.
He said about Cheech & Chong's brand of comedy,
"It is very much like Chicano art.
It is sophisticated and primitive simultaneously."
Cheech Marin is a great many things, and some of them you'd never guess just by looking
at his body of work.
For instance, the San Diego Union Tribune reveals that the stoner comedy icon is an
absolutely massive fan of jazz music, a trait he shares with his long-term comedy partner
Tommy Chong.
In fact, Marin feels that the music's improvisational nature is similar to Cheech & Chong's particular
brand of comedy.
Marin had the honor of running into jazz legend Miles Davis at a small sushi bar once, only
to find out that the musician recognized him.
Marin told the newspaper,
"[Miles] had dark black glasses on.
He saw me at the bar I had never met him and he took off his glasses, and said: 'Hey, Weed!'
That was cool.
Miles Davis said 'Hey, Weed!' to me."
In an interview with the San Diego Union Tribune, Cheech Marin revealed something that one might
not expect from him based on his laid-back, counter-culture comedian persona: He's an
avid golfer.
Marin picked up the hobby after playing Kevin Costner's caddie in 1996's Tin Cup, and has
evidently become pretty good.
Golf Digest has named him the 31st best celebrity golfer in Hollywood, and in 2013, he actually
landed his first hole in one.
His website notes that he's fond of attending charity tournaments.
Interestingly, Marin apparently shares his love of golf with another famous cannabis
aficionado, Willie Nelson.
According to the comedian, the country star has even managed to marry his two favorite
hobbies.
Marin told The Morning Call,
"Willie, every time I see him, gives me a bag of weed.
It's the best golf weed."
When asked to elaborate, he was happy to reveal why.
"Well, you can smoke it and still play golf!
You get into the Zen of it."
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