Biography

Tommy Chong

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Overview

Born
May 24, 1938 · Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Birth name
Thomas B. Kin Chong
Height
5′ 9½″ (1.77 m)

Biography

Tommy Chong was born on May 24, 1938 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for Up in Smoke (1978), Zootopia (2016) and Cheech & Chong's: The Corsican Brothers (1984). He has been married to Shelby Chong since 1975. They have four children. He was previously married to Maxine Sneed.

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademark

Roles in stoner films

Trivia

In federal prison in the 1990s, his cube-mate was Jordan Belfort, who would regale Chong with wild tales of his career as a stockbroker. Chong encouraged Belfort to write a book, which was turned into The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). They've remained friends ever since.
His father, Stanley Chong, was a Chinese immigrant. His mother, Lorna Jean (Gilchrist), was of Scots-Irish ancestry.
The only person of the 55 arrested during the US Drug Enforcement Administration's "Operation Pipe Dreams" to serve time in prison.
Diagnosed with prostate cancer [June 9, 2012].
True to his comedy image, Tommy and his family ran Nice Dreams Enterprises, an internet company that sells marijuana bongs and pipes. He was arrested in 2003 on federal drug paraphernalia charges and sentenced in September of that year. He will spend 9 months in jail and pay around $120,000 in fines.

Quotes

[on guitarist Gaye Delorme] When people used to see Coltrane play, sax players would run out of the clubs going 'I quit! I'll never play again! I can't take it!. On a quieter scale, that's exactly how Gaye mad me feel. He had a neat little trick. All good musicians do. He said, 'Can I sit in, and do you mind if if I can borrow your guitar?' And then he took the same instrument that I'd been struggling with and make it sound like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, all rolled in one.
I've met a lot of jazz musicians in my day, and they're all funny. Cannonball Adderley was a riot, Miles [Miles Davis] had the most dry sense of humor ever, always had something clever to say. I think what is is is jazz musicians - they're so careful about what notes they play, everything they do is to impress the listener. And that's what comedy is. Comedy is the ultimate truth. Jazz is hitting the notes that that no one else would hit, and comedy is saying words that no one else would say. And Gaye was the master. He was really just a special guy.
[on his mother] She really helped me. The thing about her, she was a white woman and she was married to my dad who was Chinese, and she said "Remember this: you're mixed so people are always going to look at you, they're going to notice you. So it's up to you how you conduct yourself, but you're going to be noticed."
The trouble when you're doing something illegal is that you know what you're doing. You're lying to your parents, you're lying to your kids. The only person you can't lie to is yourself.