Tommy Chong

Tommy Chong
Tommy Chong at Hash Bash in Ann Arbor, Michigan on April 4, 2015
Born	Thomas B. Kin Chong (1938-05-24) May 24, 1938 (age 78) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupation	Actor, comedian, musician, cannabis enthusiast/activist
Years active	1962–2016
Spouse(s)	Maxine Sneed (1960–1970) Shelby Fiddis (1975–present)
Children	Rae Dawn Chong, Robbi Chong, Paris Chong, Gilbran Chong, Precious Chong, Marcus Chong (adopted)

Thomas B. Kin "Tommy" Chong (born May 24, 1938) is a Canadian-American comedian, actor, writer, director, activist, and musician. He is well known for his marijuana-themed Cheech & Chong comedy albums and movies with Cheech Marin, as well as playing the character Leo on Fox's That '70s Show. He became a naturalized United States citizen in the late 1980s.

Chong was born at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, on May 24, 1938, and given the name Thomas B. Kin Chong at birth. His mother was Lorna Jean (née Gilchrist), a waitress of Scots-Irish ancestry, and his father was Stanley Chong, a Chinese truck driver who immigrated to Canada from China in the 1920s. The senior Chong had first lived with an aunt in Vancouver after arriving in Canada.

As a youth, Tommy Chong moved with his family to Calgary, settling in a conservative neighbourhood Chong has referred to as "Dog Patch". He has said that his father had "been wounded in World War II, and there was a veterans hospital in Calgary. He bought a $500 house in Dog Patch and raised his family on $50 a week." In an interview, Chong later said,

I dropped out of Crescent Heights High School when I was 16 but probably just before they were going to throw me out anyway ... I played guitar to make money. I was about 16 when I discovered that music could get you laid, even if you were a scrawny, long-haired, geeky-looking guy like me.

By the early 1960s, Chong was playing guitar for a Calgary soul group called The Shades. The Shades moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where the band's name changed to "Little Daddy & The Bachelors". They recorded a single, "Too Much Monkey Business" / "Junior's Jerk". Together with bandmember Bobby Taylor, Chong opened a Vancouver nightclub in 1963. Formerly the Alma Theatre, they called it "Blue Balls". They brought in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, which had never been to Vancouver before. Although Little Daddy & The Bachelors built up a small following, things soured when they went with Chong's suggestion and had themselves billed as "Four Niggers and a Chink" (or, bowing to pressure, "Four N's and a C") before taking on the moniker Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers.